Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Some $545 million has been allocated since the beginning of funding of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars new railway project by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) (as of April 1, 2015), the message posted on the official website of the SOFAZ said.
The funds have been transferred through the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) to Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway OJSC, created for the design, construction, rehabilitation, reconstruction and maintenance of the Marabda-border with Turkey section and the relevant infrastructure facilities in accordance with the agreement signed between the governments of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The message said that SOFAZ allocated $4.6 million in the first quarter of 2015 for implementation of the project.
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.
It is planned to complete the implementation of the project in 2015.
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.
SOFAZ was established in 1999, and its assets at that time amounted to $271 million.
As of April 1, 2015, the assets of SOFAZ have decreased by 5.86 percent compared to early 2015 ($37.104 billion) and amounted to about $34.930 billion. Based on SOFAZ's regulations, its funds may be used for the construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.
Edited by CN
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