Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.23
By Maksim Tsurkov, Azad Hasanli - Trend:
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will work at full capacity from Q3 2016, Abid Sharifov, Azerbaijan's deputy prime minister told reporters Oct.23.
He made the remarks during the 35th session of the Interstate Council on Aviation and Airspace in Baku.
"It is planned to complete the work [on BTK] in Turkey in H1 2016," said Sharifov. "We expect to fully commission [Azerbaijani section of the railway] in H1 2016 as well."
Further, the deputy prime minister said that it is planned to construct a railway tunnel under the Bosphorus strait as part of the BTK project in the future.
"Commissioning of this tunnel will increase the significance of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway," said Sharifov.
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 that will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. A depot is under construction in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing tracks in Georgia to the European ones.
The peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be equal to one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.
Edited by SI
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