Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 15 /. Trend E.Tariverdiyeva /
The decision on the accession of third countries to the project of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be made by consensus of the project participating countries, Georgian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Teimuraz Sharashenidze said at a press conference on Friday.
"Many countries are interested, but the decision will be taken by consensus," he said.
Sharashenidze said there are no disputes between the three countries on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project.
As Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov said earlier Armenia cannot use the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway without permission from Azerbaijan.
This statement was made at a joint press conference held after the meeting, following the Armenian Deputy Transport and Communications Minister Artashes Avetisyan's statement that "if possible, Armenia would like to use the BTK railroad in the future."
It is planned to construct a new 105 kilometre branch railway as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the section of the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway will be reconstructed in Georgia which will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build a centre in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing train tracks in Georgia to the European one.
Peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million tons of cargo. This figure will be at the level of one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo in the initial stages.