Azerbaijan, Baku, 31 July / Trend corr. E.Ismayilov / The cost of the Baku-Tbilisi- Kars Railway project has reached $1bln, Gurban Nazirov, Senior Engineer in the Azerbaijani State Railway, said. However, the figure may change.
"Implementation of the project will cost $1bln, but it is not the final cost," Nazirov stated.
Under the project to reconstruct the Georgian part of the Baku- Tbilisi- Kars Railway - Marabda Akhalkalaki with 160km length, the cost of works is estimated taking into consideration 15mln tons of freight transport. However, the project will be reconsidered on the base of transport in 3 or 5mln tons due to some technical indexes. The cost of the whole road Marabda- Akhalkalki is about $800mln, but initially it cost $600mln, Nazirov said.
Georgia works over the project, but the speed which cannot be increased over 50km per hour should be taken into consideration and we have proposed to reduce the project cost, as well as construction works, Nazirov stated.
Construction of the new part of the railway in Georgia with 29km length envisages investments in the sum $160mln. However, it cost is also expected to be decreased by excluding some works.
The Baku- Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki- Kars railway project includes the construction of 105km-railway lines, with 76 km section running via Turkey and 29 km section via Georgia. Moreover, 183 km section of Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi railway will be also reconstructed to improve the carrying capacity to 15mln tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build in Akhalkalaki a facility for the transition of trains from the track existing in Georgia to the European one..
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