The transport sector modernization is one of the priorities in the economic development strategy of Azerbaijan. Here are some events as of May:
- A tunnel, located between the Georgian and Turkish border, was opened on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, Azerbaijani Deputy Transport Minister Musa Panahov said May 12. He made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 14th International Transport, Transit and Logistics Exhibition and 5th Anniversary Caspian International Road Infrastructure and Public Transport Exhibition.
"This is an important step towards the realization of the project, because construction of the tunnel was the most difficult section," said the deputy minister.
The length of the tunnel is 4.5 kilometers.
- As many as 72 new freight cars were delivered in Azerbaijan on the request of Azerbaijani Railways CJSC. Fifty of them are freight gondolas, and the remainder is flat cars for transportation of large-capacity containers.
- Azerbaijan Railways CJSC and Switzerland's Stadler Rail Group signed a contract on the purchase of five KISS double-decker trains. The signing ceremony was held as part of the 14th International Transport, Transit and Logistics Exhibition, TransCaspian 2015. The contract is worth about 60-70 million euros. Each train consists of four cars. The passenger capacity of each train is 919 people and there are 396 seats in each train, 84 of which are business class seats.
- Azerbaijan and Poland signed an agreement on maritime transport, the State Maritime Administration of Azerbaijan said. The agreement contains such provisions as banning of discrimination in the relations between the two sides and free competition, the conditions created for ships in the ports, internal waters and territorial seas, the mutual recognition of documents of ships, technical cooperation, international obligations, conflict settlement and others.
- Azerbaijan and Kuwait signed an agreement and a memorandum of understanding to organize aviation services between the two countries. The agreement envisages commercial cooperation among a number of aviation companies in both countries to facilitate passenger transport. It also includes exchange of transport rights along with a number of privileges and facilities to enhance coordination in the field of civil aviation's safety and security.
- Azerbaijan Railways and Russian Railways companies signed a cooperation memorandum. The document aims to increase cargo transportation within the "North-South" transport corridor as well as on the Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia-Europe route. It envisages maximum use of rail transit potential of Azerbaijan and Russia, strengthening the operation of Samur-Yalama international checkpoint, using advanced technologies for processing documents by electronic means, defining the competitive level of tariffs for passenger transportation, effective use of freight wagons in both countries, as well as creating a working group to address the issues related to cooperation.
Azerbaijani transport sector transported 88.7 million metric tons of cargo in January-May 2015, Azerbaijani State Statistical Committee said in its report.
The volume of non-oil cargo transportation increased by 2.7 percent, reaching 62.2 million metric tons in January-May, said the report.
As much as 78 percent of the total volume of transported goods accounted for the private sector during this period.
Moreover, 58.1 percent of all cargo was transported by vehicles, 29.9 percent - by pipelines, 8.5 percent - railway and 3.5 percent - by ships.
Some 735.7 million people used passenger transport in January-May, which is 3.7 percent more than in the same period of 2014. Most of the passengers were transported by vehicles (87 percent) and metro (12.8 percent).
Automobile transport takes the lion share in the transport field of the country. Some 51.5 million metric tons of cargo were transported by vehicles, which is 6.5 percent more than in the same period of 2014.
The volume of passenger transportation hit 640 million people (a 3.7 percent growth compared to the same period of 2014). Some 96.1 percent of the passengers were transported by buses and 3.9 percent - by cars.
Freight turnover by vehicles increased by 6.5 percent during the reporting period, while passenger turnover - by 3.8 percent.
Some 7.5 million metric tons of cargo were transported by railway in January-May 2015.
On average, the number of loaded carriages made up 491 and unloaded - 463. Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 20,200 metric tons, in western direction - 5,500 metric tons and southern direction - 2,600 metric tons.
Around 3.1 million metric tons of cargo were transported by ships during this period. All cargo accounted for international operations. The volume of goods handled in Azerbaijani ports amounted to 4.2 million metric tons in January-May.
Some 71.2 percent of cargo shipping fell to oil and oil products, while 28.8 percent on dry cargo. The volume of international transit cargo handled in the ports hit 94.5 percent. As of June 1, 2015, around 56,800 metric tons of import cargo left in the ports for transportation.
Some 19.4 million metric tons of oil were transported via main oil pipelines in January-May. Some 76.7 percent or 14.9 million metric tons of oil accounted for BTC. Three million metric tons of Turkmen oil were transported via the BTC in January-May.
Gas transportation via main gas pipelines made up 9.8 billion cubic meters in January-May. Some 30.9 percent of the transported gas fell to the South Caucasus Pipeline. Three billion cubic meters of gas were transported via this pipeline.
Some 627,600 passengers were transported by air transport in January-May which is 3 percent more than in the same period of 2014. Some 0.4 percent of shipment by this kind of transport fell to private sector.
Some 94.2 million people were transported by metro (a 3.2 percent growth) compared to the same period of 2014.
Some 107.3 million metric tons of cargo were transported through the Eurasian transport corridor TRACECA (Europe-Caucasus-Asia) through the territory of Azerbaijan in January-April 2015 or by 7.8 percent more than in the same period of 2014.
Some 17.9 million metric tons of cargo were transported through the corridor in January-April compared to 13.9 million metric tons in the same period of 2014, according to the report of Azerbaijani State Statistical Committee.
Around 54.8 percent (9.8 million metric tons) of the total volume of transported cargo fell to vehicles, 31.4 percent (5.6 million metric tons) - railway and 13.8 percent (2.5 million metric tons) - ships, according to the report.