Commissioning of the railway pilot train in the framework of the Protocol signed between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan for involvement of additional container freights for the Europe-Caucasus-Asia Transport Corridor (TRACECA), scheduled for 1 October 2005 delayed for an uncertain period.
The reason for this is non-coordination of a number of issues by the sides, the Transport Ministry of Azerbaijan told Trend. В"Under the Protocol the sides agreed to lower the tariffs for container freights along this route by 50%. However, the Kazakh side considers their tariffs are lower than those of Azerbaijan and Georgia, therefore they do not see any necessity in decreasing the tariffs”, the Ministry noted.
The talks are currently underway and the issue is expected to be solved till the year end.
The coordination group, comprising the representatives of the Transport Ministry of Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia, the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Kazakhstan is set up for attracting additional container cargo for TRACECA. The head of the group is the deputy chief of the Azerbaijan State Railway Igbal Huseynov.