Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 13 /Trend, E.Ismailov/
Within three years, the Transport Ministry of Azerbaijan plans to complete the first phase of construction of a new international trade port in Alat settlement near Baku, Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov told reporters on Thursday.
According to him, with the completion of first phase, the port will be able to transship 15 million tons of cargo per year, and after the implementation of the second and third phases, this figure will reach 25 million tons.
Currently, the old port of Baku is able to transship 5-10 million tons of cargo per year, and the equipment at the port has already outdated. Construction of the new port will significantly increase the flow of goods and volume of transit cargo.
"In Azerbaijan there are all conditions for the development of multimodal transport," said the Minister.
Mammadov said a Dubai company displays an interest in participating in the project.
The total project cost is 870 million manat. The first and main phase of the port construction is estimated at 540 million manat. The cost of the second and third phases will hit 150 and 180 million manat respectively.
The construction of the new international port started in November 2010. It is situated in 65 kilometers south from Baku in the Alat settlement.
The new international sea port in the Alat settlement will be constructed in three stages. The first stage envisages the construction of two bridges for ferry boats, three freight bridges for containers, Ro-Ro ships, and simple (universal) dry cargo ships.
The second stage of the project envisages the construction of three other freight bridges. The third stage envisages the construction of two additional freight bridges.
Port in Alat will be multimodal, since in addition to the logistics center, it is planned to establish a free economic zone in the future in this area.
Official exchange rate on Oct. 11 is 0.7868 AZN/USD.