BTK construction underway

By Azernews

By Nigar Abbasova

A 183-km Georgian section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be commissioned by 2016, said Javid Gurbanov, Chairman of the Azerbaijani Railways.

Gurbanov talking to media mentioned that some 90 percent of excavation works have also been completed in the railway’s 80-km part, covering the territory of Turkey (the area from the border of Georgia to Kars), Day.Az reported.

He said that the average speed of trains on the route will amount to 100-140 kph, adding that the speed limit will be fixed at 60-80 kph in Kars region due to its location in mountainous area.

BTK project is expected to open a new rail corridor from the Caspian Sea to Europe via Turkey, excluding the need for sea transportation. The peak capacity of the corridor is expected to be at the level of 17 million metric tons of freight per year.

Being constructed under a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement, BTK is expected to expand multi-modal transportation opportunities, ensure the growth of passenger and freight transportation and boost the transit potential of the regional countries.

Gurbanov further underlined necessity of constructing new railroads in Azerbaijan in order to introduce new high-speed trains in the country.

“Technology of high-speed trains is different in some countries. They work on air-cushion system, while the use of such trains in Azerbaijan is currently impossible. Therefore there is a necessity to construct a new railway line. Nevertheless, we may increase the speed by means of maintenance operations in the current lines.”

Gurbanov said that Azerbaijan Railways is planning to launch a certain number of trains with the speed of 100 kph in the Ganja direction in 2017. The launch of such trains is expected to reduce the travel time to Ganja, the second largest city of Azerbaijan, to 3-3.5 hours.

For this end, the company is planning to purchase new double-deck trains from Stadler Rail Group and put them to operation next year.

Earlier it was reported that Azerbaijan ordered 30 Stadler cars for use on the BTK. The cars are produced in four categories including standard, comfort, business and restaurant.

Gurbanov also said that Azerbaijan Railways and ASAN Service, Azerbaijan’s network of simplified access to government services, have recently signed an agreement on the sale of tickets in the railway stations by means of the ASAN service.

 He also mentioned that it is planned to introduce a new “ASAN Qatar” system in the country, which stands for offering services in trains.

Speaking about the time limits for advance online ticket sale, Gurbanov said that he advocates elimination of the limit, nevertheless the tackling of the issue requires time.  He pointed out that currently the limit for the advance purchase of tickets is 10 days, while it is expected to be extended up to 30 days in the short run.