Georgia, Tbilisi, April 24 / Trend, N. Kirtzkhalia /
Around $432.8 million has been allocated since the beginning of the financing of the project on the construction of the new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and up to March 30, 2013 by the Azerbaijani State Oil Fund (SOFAZ), SOFAZ said today.
According to the report, some $ 1.4 million were allocated for this project by SOFAZ in the first quarter of 2013.
The figure hit $151.5 million in 2012.
Funds allocated to the Azerbaijani Transport Ministry via the International Bank of Azerbaijan in accordance with the agreement signed between the Azerbaijani and Georgian governments were transferred to the "Marabda-Kartsakhi railway, created for the design, construction, rehabilitation, reconstruction and exploitation of the Marabda-Border Railway of Turkey and the relevant infrastructure facilities.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being built on the basis of a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish inter-state agreement. Azerbaijan provided a loan worth $775 million for construction of the Georgian section.
Funding for this project from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan is carried out according to a presidential decree on the 'Implementation of measures within Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project' dated February 21, 2007.
Construction of a new 105-kilometre railway section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project is planned. Moreover, the section of the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway will be reconstructed in Georgia. This 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 existing train tracks in Georgia to European ones.
The corridor's peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo. This figure will be at one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo in its initial stages.