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Azerbaijan Railways expecting growth in domestic freight traffic

Business Materials 13 October 2016 15:59 (UTC +04:00)
Azerbaijan Railways CJSC plans to transport 1.7-1.8 million tons of cargo within Azerbaijan,
Azerbaijan Railways expecting growth in domestic freight traffic

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 13

By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:

Azerbaijan Railways CJSC plans to transport 1.7-1.8 million tons of cargo within Azerbaijan, said Javid Gurbanov, head of Azerbaijan Railways.

Gurbanov made the remarks Oct. 13 during an event dedicated to railway workers’ holiday.

He said that the development should go step-by-step.

“It is important to reconstruct; thus, our representative offices are opened in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Georgia,” he noted. “If the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping company is more honest, cargo traffic through Azerbaijan, from countries such as Ukraine and China, will increase.”

The main aim of Azerbaijan Railways is the increase by 50 percent in freight traffic volume and by two or three times of railway workers’ salaries, he said.

“In 2014, 21.8 million tons of cargo was transported via railway in Azerbaijan, about 5 million tons of which accounted for domestic transportation,” noted Gurbanov. “The large volume of traffic was also related to the recovery in the construction sector.”

He went on to add that then the followed global economic crisis affected freight traffic and its volume decreased.

More than 17 million tons of cargo was transported in Azerbaijan in 2015, about 2.3 million tons of which accounted for domestic transportation, he said adding that during the eight months of 2016, total volume of freight traffic was 15.5 million tons.

Gurbanov also noted that incorrect tariff policy, conducted earlier, had a negative impact on the volume of goods transported through Azerbaijan.

“However, we managed to solve this problem; the regress slowed down slightly and now, the increase is observed in freight traffic.”

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov

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