There were two important events in the entire development of the Azerbaijani transport infrastructure in September, namely, commissioning of the Yevlakh airport which is the seventh airport in the country and opening of a large shipyard near Baku.
While participating in the opening ceremony of the airport, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stressed that the airport meets all international standards and it will play a very important role in restructuring of the Azerbaijani transport infrastructure. The new runway with asphalt concrete pavement with a length of 2,520 meters and a width of 40 meters is capable of accepting any large-capacity aircraft.
The radio and meteorological equipment manufactured in Europe, namely, a system of landing, meteorological system, air traffic control and communication meeting the requirements and standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization were installed to ensure the flight safety.
As for the shipyard, this is another important infrastructure project. It has no analogue in the Caspian Sea in terms of its production capabilities. The production capacity is 25,000 tons of metal constructions per year. This will meet the needs of the ships not only in Azerbaijan but in the entire Caspian region. The shipyard will construct and repair any ships, in general, conduct the operations in the field of marine engineering.
The shipyard is equipped with the most modern equipment manufactured in Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, the Republic of Korea and Singapore.
Thus, we see that Azerbaijan continues step by step strengthening its positions to become a key transport and logistics and transit center in the region of the Caspian Sea and the South Caucasus. This prepares a good basis for new economic impetus.
More about the events in September:
- The operations on the construction of a new section of the "green " line of Baku Metro - "Khatai- Hazi Aslanov - 2", consisting of three stations have been launched. This section of "green" line will pass through the territory where the Baku White City project is being implemented. French Buiq and Ukrainian Interbudmontazh companies are involved in the construction.
- The Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport is carrying out work on the reconstruction and expansion of access and link roads to the new Olympic Stadium as part of the preparation for the First Baku 2015 European Games, Deputy Transport Minister of Azerbaijan Musa Panahov said. According to him a special plan was created for each Olympic complex, in line with which works are being carried out. The deputy transport minister also said that alongside with the reconstruction and modernisation of the existing roads, new ones are being constructed, in particular the road lying parallel to Heydar Aliyev Avenue.
- Canadian Bombardier Transportation signed a contract with Azerbaijani Railways CJSC to upgrade signalling systems on the Baku-Boyuk Kesik railway. According to the message, the total value of the deal is $288 million. The length of Baku-Boyuk Kesik railway where the new signalling systems will be installed is 503 kilometres. The volume of work covers designing, manufacture, supply, install, test and commissioning of the Interflo 200 signalling system. The commissioning of the system is planned in four stages and the process will be completed by 2017.
- Azerbaijani government and the World Bank (WB) signed an agreement on granting additional funds by the bank for the implementation of country's railway project (Rail Trade and Transport Facilitation Project) worth of $ 220 million.
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) presented a report on the study of possibilities to implement toll roads in Azerbaijan to local and foreign partners. "The purpose of the study is to identify the priority road stretches for the application of toll road practice and efficiency of the private sector's involvement in this issue. This is as well as exploring opportunities for sustainable participation of the private sector in this field on the basis of the regulatory base existing in Azerbaijan," the statement said.
In January-September 2013, the Azerbaijani transport sector transported 161.6 million tons of cargo or 2.8 percent more than in January-September 2012. Of the total volume of goods transported in January-September, 75.2 percent fell to the private sector, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee said.
Some 57.5 percent of all cargo were transported by vehicles, 26.6 percent - by pipelines, 10.5 percent - by railway and 5.4 percent - by ships.
About 1.27 billion people used passenger transport in January-September, which is 7.8 percent more than the same period of 2012. Most of the passengers were transported by vehicles (87.9 percent) and metro (11.9 percent).
Automobile transport takes the lion share in the transport field of the country. Some 92.8 million tons of cargo were transported by vehicles, which is 6 percent more than in January-September 2012. The volume of passenger traffic exceeded 1.1 billion people (an increase of 8.1 percent). Some 96.3 percent of the passengers were transported by buses and 3.7 percent - by cars.
Freight turnover by vehicles increased by 6.2 percent during the reporting period, while passenger turnover - by 9.1 percent.
In January-September, some 17 million tons of cargo were transported by rail compared to 16.7 million tons in January-September 2012.
The number of loaded carriages made up 650, in average per day and unloaded - 588. Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 24,300 tons and in western direction 6,300 tons and southern direction - 5,900 tons.
Maritime transport carried 8.8 million tons of cargo compared to 9.3 million tons in January-September 2012. All cargo accounted for international operations. The volume of goods handled in ports in Azerbaijan in January-September amounted to 9.1 million tons.
Some 56.5 percent of cargo shipping fell on oil and oil products, while 43.5 percent on dry cargo. Volume of international transit cargo processed at the ports in January-September hit 84.2 percent. As of October 1, 2013, 80,600 tons of cargo left in the ports for import or 24 percent more than in 2012.
In January-September, some 32.5 million tons of oil were transported via oil pipelines. During this period, 75 percent or 24.6 million tons of oil were transported via the BTC (data provided by the State Statistics Committee). In January-September Sangachal terminal transported 2.1 million tons of Turkmen oil via BTC.
Gas transportation via gas pipelines made up 14.6 billion cubic meters in January-September. Some 21.2 percent of the transported gas fell on South Caucasus Pipeline. Some 3.1 billion cubic meters of gas were transported via this pipeline.
Some 1.28 million passengers were transported by air transport, which is 4.3 percent more than in January-September 2012. Some 0.5 percent of traffic by this kind of transport fell to private sector. The volume of cargo transportation by air hit 84,600 tons in January-September increasing by 1.9 times.
Some 150.3 million people were transported by metro (a 6.1 percent growth) compared to the same period of last year.
Some 39.5 million tons of cargo were transported through the Eurasian transport corridor through the territory of Azerbaijan in January-September, which is 4.9 percent more than in January-August 2012.
Around 47 percent of the total volume of transported cargo fell to motor transport, 35.7 percent - railway and 17.3 percent - ships.
Some 193.4 million people were transported through the corridor during this period, which is 11.7 percent more than in January-August 2012.