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Turkish minister talks about implementation process of BTK project

Business Materials 6 March 2015 19:12 (UTC +04:00)
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will be commissioned by late 2015 and currently, this project is being implemented without delays.
Turkish minister talks about implementation process of BTK project

Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 6

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will be commissioned by late 2015 and currently, this project is being implemented without delays, Turkish Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Lutfi Elvan said.

The minister said the construction of a 79-kilometers long tunnel has almost been completed as part of the implementation of the project on Turkey's territory, Aktifhaber newspaper reported on March 6.

Elvan added that BTK project is of special importance for Turkey.

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

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

A new 105-kilometer 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 that 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.

The peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million metric tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be equal to one million passengers and 6.5 million metric tons of cargo. The railway is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2015.

Edited by CN

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