Azerbaijan, Baku, March 11 / Trend , E.Ismayilov/
The land digging in Georgia within the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railroad is expected to be resumed on March 15. Earlier, the digging was suspended due to bad weather conditions, Azerbaijani State Railway Service spokesperson Nadir Azmammadov said.
"In December, the land digging in the section where a new railway plot (Marabda-Kartsakhi) is planned to construct, was suspended due to winter season. The digging will be commenced since March 15," Azmammadov added.
The land digging has already carried out on six kilometer of the road.
Azerbaijan will invest 80 million manat to construction of the Georgian section of BTK on the basis of approved budget of the State Oil Fund.
The final document between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey on the construction of BTC was signed in Tbilisi in February 2007. Azerbaijan allocated to the Georgia Railway Marabda-Kartsakhi a soft loan amounting to $200 million for a period of 25 years under one percent a year. A new road length of 29 kilometre will be constructed in Georgia through these funds, including a point of service and maintenance on the border with Turkey, as well as to renovate the old road. The project's total cost is more than $600 million.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project includes the construction of 105km-railway lines, with 76 kilometres section running via Turkey and 29 kilometres section via Georgia. Moreover, 183 kilometres section of Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi railway will be also reconstructed to improve the carrying capacity to 15million tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build in Akhalkalaki a place for the transition of trains from the track existing in Georgia to the European one.
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