Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 22
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
Some $414.6 million were allocated from the beginning of funding of the project on new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway's construction by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), SOFAZ told Trend Oct.22.
The official exchange rate for October 22 is 0, 7843 AZN / USD.
Funds were transferred to Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC with Azerbaijani International Bank's help in line with the agreement signed between Azerbaijani and Georgian governments. Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC was created for the design, construction, rehabilitation, reconstruction and operation of the Marabda-Turkish border railway section and relevant infrastructure facilities.
The fund has allocated 47.5 million AZN on BTK project in January-September, the fund said
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.
Azerbaijan has allocated a loan worth $775 million for construction of the Georgian section. Funding of the project by SOFAZ is carried out in accordance with the decree of the President of Azerbaijan 'On the implementation of the project activities of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars' dated February 21, 2007.
It is planned to construct a new 105-kilometer branch of the railroad as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the railway's Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda section will be reconstructed in Georgia, which will increase its capacity to 15 million metric tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build a post in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing tracks in Georgia to the European ones.
Peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million metric tons of cargo. This figure will be at the level of 1 million passengers and 6.5 million metric tons of cargo at the initial stage.
SOFAZ was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million.
The assets of SOFAZ as of October 1, 2014 have grown by 3.98 percent compared to early 2014 ($35.877 billion) and stood at $37.305 billion
Based on SOFAZ's regulations, its funds may be used for the construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.