Saakashvili displeased about slow pace of construction of BTK railway's Georgian sector

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili believes that all the projects, started under the previous government, necessary to finish. Georgian President said about it after reviewing the progress of construction of the georgian section of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line.

He also inspected the construction of the new railway station in Akhalkalaki.

Saakashvili expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that the work on this object was temporarily stopped. President demanded that such important project must be finished in the terms, that was previously agreed.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being built on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish inter-state agreement. Azerbaijan provided a loan worth $775 million for construction of the Georgian section.

Funding for this project from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan is carried out according to a presidential decree on the 'Implementation of measures within Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project' dated February 21, 2007.

$431.3 million has been allocated since the beginning of the funding of the project and up until January 1, 2013.

Plans exist to construct a new 105 kilometre branch railroad within the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway will be reconstructed in Georgia which will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build a centre in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing train tracks in Georgia to the European system.

Peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million tons of cargo. This figure will initially be at the level of one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.

In future, with completion of the Marmaray project (construction of a tunnel under the Bosporus), access to Europe will be provided through the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.