Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 15 / Trend E.Ismaylov
Construction of a new international trade seaport in Alat settlement near Baku is going on schedule, the head of Ministry of Transport press-service Namig Hasanov told Trend on Wednesday.
"Construction of the port is carried out in accordance with schedule," he said.
Construction work started in November 2010.
The Ministry of Transport plans to complete the first phase of construction within three years. After this the port would ship 15 million tons of loads per year, and after realization of the second and third phases, this number will reach 25 million tons.
At present the old Baku port can ship 5-10 million tons of loads per year. The seaport equipment went out of date. The construction of the new port will allow increasing the flow of goods and the volume of transit cargo significantly.
The total cost of the construction 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 new international sea port in the Alat settlement will be constructed in three stages and will be completed in 2015. 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 multi-mode. In addition to the logistics center, a free economic zone is planed to be created in this area in future.
The official exchange rate is 0.7861 AZN/USD on Feb. 15.