Azerbaijan, Baku, September 10 / Trend, E.Ismaylov /
Despite of the complexity of the relief on the territory of Georgia and Turkey, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be put into operation in 2014, the Deputy Transport Minister Musa Panahov told the journalists on Tuesday.
According to him, till late 2013 within this route it is planned to send the first technical trains and locomotives.
"The constructon work is held in rather difficult conditions: both Turkey and Georgia have difficult mountain terrains that create some problems...But in spite of this, work continues successfully," Panahov stressed.
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. The commissioning of the railway is scheduled for 2014.
As expected, BTK railway, which has direct access to the European rail network, will transport 30 million tons of cargo annually.
In future, with completion of the Marmara project (construction of a tunnel under the Bosporus), access to Europe will be provided using the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.