Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway expenditure increases

According to a rough calculation, the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railways will cost more than USD 1 bln. In 2007 when the project started, Georgia received a USD 200 mln loan from Azerbaijan and recently in May, 2011 Georgia received yet more credit worth USD 575 mln to continue construction.

In the beginning it was considered that the project would cost USD 422 mln and around an extra USD 200 mln would go on infrastructure development. But now the prices have gone up due to technical problems, the financial crisis, and other issues. The project envisages 76 km of track on Turkish territory and 29 km of track on Georgia’s territory. Besides this new track, the Tbilisi-Marabda-Akhalkalaki existing railway is being reconstructed. There is also the need to build a special depo to change the wheels of the carriages as Azerbaijan and Georgia use Soviet-type wheels and tracks wider than European ones. By 2015, when the railway will be fully functioning, more than 15 mln tonnes of cargo will be transported annually.