Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 27
Trend:
Azerbaijani, Georgian and Turkish officials reviewed the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project implementation.
“Javid Gurbanov, chairman of the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, Mamuka Bakhtadze, director general and chairman of the board of directors at the Georgian Railways JSC and Turkish Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communications Ahmet Arslan traveled by train from Tbilisi to Akhalkalaki and reviewed the construction work,” Azerbaijan Railways CJSC told Trend Sept. 27.
The officials visited Tsalka, Tetritskaro and other stations, as well as reviewed whether the railway, which would connect Asia and Europe, is ready for operation.
Besides the heads of the transport structures of the three countries, Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Giorgi Gakharia, chairman of the CJSC Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company Rauf Valiyev, ambassador of Azerbaijan to Georgia Dursun Hasanov, ambassador of Turkey to Georgia Zeki Levent Gumrukcu and other officials also attended the event.
"We have tested the new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway,” Gurbanov told media. “The railway is ready for operation. After the official opening ceremony with the president’s participation, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be commissioned."
The BTK railway is being constructed on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. 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.