Ziya Mammadov, the Azerbaijani Transport Minister, Arif Asgarov, the Department Head of Azerbaijan State Railway, and Namik Aliyev, the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Georgia, reached a verbal agreement with the Georgian Prime Minister, Zurab Nogaideli, on 12 January over the rehabilitation of one of the sections of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku railway route.
Mr. Aliyev exclusively informed Trend after the completion of rehabilitation, the construction of the railway will be set up in another section in Georgia.
The agreement can be signed in Tbilisi under this project on 12 January, he stressed.
During the meeting held in Baku on 13 October, 2006 the trilateral working group on Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku considered draft frame agreements, Georgia's commitments on the construction of a railway route and a credit agreement between Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia.
The project is estimated at $422mln, but with the infrastructure, $600mln. The U.S. Administration banned the U.S. companies to finance the projects
The trilateral Azerbaijani-Georgian Declaration on Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku railway route was signed in Baku in May 2005 by the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.