Azerbaijan, Baku, November 14 / Trend, A. Akhundov /
The works of construction of railway Baku-Tbilisi-Kars are carried out in a normal mode, and two pilot trains will be launched by the project's participants at the end of 2012, Transport Minister of Azerbaijan Ziya Mammadov told journalists on Monday.
He said the railway will be put into full operation in the first half of 2013.
Railway Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is being built in accordance with the Georgian-Azerbaijan-Turkish interstate agreement.
Azerbaijan assigned a loan of $775 million for construction of the railway's Georgian section. This project is financed by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan in compliance with the Order of the President of Azerbaijan "On Implementation of Measures on Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Project" of February 21, 2007.
The project Baku-Tbilisi-Kars envisions buildup of a new, 105-kilometer section, including 76 kilometers and 29 kilometers to pass the territory of Turkey and Georgia, respectively.
Apart from that, the railway's Georgian section - Ahalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi - will be reconstructed for the reasons of an increase of its annual throughput capacity up to 15 million tons of cargoes.
The railway's peak throughput capacity will make up 17 million tons of cargoes per year. At the initial stage, this indicator will be equivalent to 1 million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargoes.