Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway is an essential part of the new Silk Road, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the G20 summit, TRT Haber reported Sept. 5.
President Erdogan added that BTK is the most important project, which will connect the West with the East.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. It is planned to be commissioned by late 2016.
Azerbaijan allocated a loan of $775 million for construction of the railway's Georgian section.
SOFAZ finances the project in accordance with the Azerbaijani president's decree 'On the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project activities', dated Feb. 21, 2007.
The peak capacity of the railway will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.
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