Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 13
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Azerbaijan on Oct. 30, Turkish Ambassador to Baku Ercan Ozoral told Trend Oct. 13.
He added that President Erdogan will take part in the opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway.
The diplomat said the BTK railway is important not only for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, but also for the entire Eurasia.
The ambassador said the BTK railway is important as it will connect China and Europe, which will facilitate an uninterrupted supply of goods.
“BTK will also contribute to strengthening of cultural and economic ties between our countries,” the ambassador said.
Javid Gurbanov, head of the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, said Oct. 13 that from 2018, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will start transporting passengers.
“As you know, we have purchased 30 railway cars that were produced by Swiss company Stadler using a special technology,” he said.
Gurbanov added that travel time from Azerbaijan’s Baku to Turkey’s Kars will be about 16-18 hours.
“The Georgian part of the railway stretches through the highlands, where the speed of the train will not exceed 60-70 kilometers per hour, so the travel time will be 16-18 hours,” he explained.
The BTK railway has been constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railway’s peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.
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