Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project to strengthen Baku-Ankara energy corridor

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway construction project will strengthen the energy corridor between Baku and Ankara, governor of the Turkish province of Kars Gunay Ozdemir said in an interview with Trend.

“Some 79 kilometers of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway stretch through Turkey, 58 kilometers of which account for the province of Kars,” he said.

He stressed the importance of the BTK project.

"It will be possible to transport cargo easily from Europe to China by trains after the project implementation," Ozdemir said.

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.

The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) finances the project in line with the Azerbaijani president’s decree 'On the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project activities' dated February 21, 2007.

A new 105-kilometre branch of the railroad is being constructed as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the railway's Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi section is under reconstruction in Georgia, what will increase its capacity to 15 million metric tons of cargo per year. A depot is under construction in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing tracks in Georgia to the European ones.

It is planned to complete the project in 2015.

The highest capacity of the corridor will be 17 million metric tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million metric tons of cargo.
(Trend.az)