Baku, Azerbaijan, May 14
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Iran shows great interest in the use of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, a source in Azerbaijan’s logistics market told Trend May 14.
“The Iranian side shows interest not only in transportation via the "North-South" and "South-West" corridors with a direct access to Europe, but also in BTK with an access to Turkey,” the source said.
"Iran and Turkey are connected by the direct railway from Tabriz to Van,” the source said. “But in case of cargo transportation, Iran is not fully pleased with this route as the railway reaches only to the shores of Lake Van. This area is poorly connected with the rest of Turkey’s transport network. There is ferry service across the lake to the railway line that connects Turkey’s railway network with the city of Van and further with Iran. The ferry runs regularly, but this leads to additional expenses."
The source said that it is economically more expedient for Iran to carry cargoes to Turkey via railway through Azerbaijan and Georgia.
"BTK is attractive to the Iranian side from the point of view of finance and transportation time,” the source said. “This issue will become important when the Astara-Rasht junction is built. Afterwards, the entire Iranian railway system will be connected to Azerbaijan’s railway. Therefore it is possible to say that the volumes of Iranian cargoes transported through Azerbaijan will increase.”
The official opening ceremony of the BTK railway was held in Baku Oct. 30. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.
Initially, the railway’s peak capacity will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.
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