Azerbaijan, Baku, 2 May / Trend E. Ismailov /
Work on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway construction is maintained in accordance with the planned schedule, head of Azerbaijan Railways JSC Arif Askerov said on Thursday, commenting on the suspension of work under this project.
According to him, the Azerbaijani side adopted a budget for financing the work throughout 2013 and all work is carried out in accordance with a prearranged schedule.
The transport corridor includes the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki branch line with a length of 98km of which 68km lies in Turkey and 30km in Georgia.
A 183 kilometre section of the Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi railway will be reconstructed as part of the project to increase the capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is planned to construct a centre in Akhalkalaki to transfer trains from the existing Georgian track to the European one.
Azerbaijan has allocated a soft loan worth $775 million for Georgia to construct and reconstruct the Georgian section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.
Tranche A worth $200 million has been allocated for 25 years at one per cent per annum and includes the work on the project since 2007. Tranche B worth $575 million is for 25 years at five per cent per annum.
The need for allocating Tranche B is associated with an increase in world prices on the construction and raw materials, revaluation of the current state of the Marabda-Kartsakhi railway branch and operations in adverse weather conditions.
It is expected that about 30 million tons of cargo per year will be transported through the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway annually. It will become a direct route to the European rail network.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will increase the flow of containers, bulk and other types of cargo from Asia to Europe. The Marmaris project envisaging the construction of a tunnel under the Bosporus will be implemented during this period. This will open a rail link to Europe.