Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 29
Trend:
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will be constructed in 2016, Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Alper Coskun told reporters Jan. 29.
"The technical problems delayed the BTK project implementation," he said. "But they have already been resolved."
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. Azerbaijan allocated a loan of $775 million for the construction of the railway's Georgian section.
A new 105-kilometer branch of the railroad is being constructed as part of the project.
The peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million metric tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be equal to one million passengers and 6.5 million metric tons of cargo.
The annual transit of goods from Iran to Russia via Azerbaijan will reach about ten million tons. The North-South railway will connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia. It will serve as a link to connect the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia.