Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.26
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
Work on the territory of Turkey within the framework of a new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line will be completed on time, the deputy transport minister Musa Panahov told reporters Nov.26, responding to a question on the information about the delay of works in Turkey.
"Such talks have been taking place since the beginning of this project," said Panahov. "I would like to say that work in Turkey continue and will be completed on time."
He said that plans are to launch the first working train to the Georgian border with Turkey in December, 2014.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.
The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) finances the project in accordance with the Azerbaijani president's decree 'On the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project activities' dated February 21, 2007.
A new 105-kilometer branch of the railroad is being constructed as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the railway's Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi section is under reconstruction in Georgia, which will increase its capacity to 15 million metric tons of cargo per year. A post is under construction in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing tracks in Georgia to the European ones.
According to plan the project should be completed in 2015, and it is scheduled to launch the first test work train in late 2014.
The peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million metric tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million metric tons of cargo.