BTK project to be commissioned in summer

By Amina Nazarli

The opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which will open up a new rail corridor from the Caspian Sea to Europe, is scheduled for late June.

The statement was made by Turkey’s Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication Ahmet Arslan.

Arslan added that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend the ceremony.

The minister stressed that diesel locomotives will transport cargo via the BTK, saying that the corridor will help establish continuous railway communication between Europe and China.

“While using alternative routes, for example via the territory of Russia or Iran, as well as cargo transshipment by sea, 45-60 days are required for cargo transportation from China to Europe,” he said, stressing that cargo will be transported from China to Europe in 12-15 days via BTK.

He added that BTK will also make an important contribution to the development of Turkish trade.

"At present, 26.5 million tons per year account for the cargo transported via the Turkish railways,” the minister said. “At the same time, an additional annual volume of 10 million tons of goods transported via BTK will account only for Kazakhstan. In general, after the BTK is commissioned, the volumes of cargo transported via the Turkish railways will double."

The BTK railway is being constructed on the basis of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey intergovernmental agreement. Peak capacity of the railway will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, it will serve one million passengers and transport 6.5 million tons of cargo.

BTK project is expected to further strengthen the neighborly and fraternal relations among the three countries and enable the countries to supply domestically produced goods to the world markets.

The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) invested some $630.2 million in the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project as of January 1, 2017. Last year, the fund allocated $41.9 million for the implementation of the project.