Azerbaijan to invest huge funds in railway development until 2022

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13

By Maksim Tsurkov- Trend:

Azerbaijan's investments in the development of railways will be about $5 billion in 2010-2022, Deputy Head of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Hijran Valehov said at the first conference of the Silk Road Support Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Baku March 13.

He noted that the freight turnover between the European Union and China is forecast to double by 2030.

"Azerbaijan needs to do certain work, particularly, develop the country's railways with a view not to stay away from these processes. Huge work has already been done: the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was launched, the North-South project, which will connect the Persian Gulf, Russia and Northern Europe through Azerbaijan, is being realized. In general, it was planned to invest over $4,879 billion into the development of the railway infrastructure from 2010 to 2022. Part of this fund has already been invested, while the rest will be invested until 2022, " he said.

Particularly, he noted that bulk of the funds has been spent on reconstruction and electrification of the railway routes, overhaul of the Baku-Beyuk-Kesik railway section, renovation of the fleet of carriages, purchase of passenger and freight locomotives.