Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.3
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Three sleeping coaches for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway have already been assembled, Swiss Stadler Rail Group told Trend.
“The project is running on time. At present three sleeping coaches are finished and are being type tested for normal gauge,” said the company.
“We expect delivery of the first batch as announced earlier in March 2019.”
A train will consist of 10 cars. First 10 will be delivered in 2019, the second 10 in 2020.
Earlier, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Javid Gurbanov said that the passenger transportation via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will begin in 2019.
He noted that the passenger transportation will be launched after receiving passenger trains ordered from Stadler.
"I recently met with representatives of Stadler, and, they said, the trains will be delivered in early 2019," Gurbanov said.
The official opening ceremony of the BTK railway was held in Baku Oct. 30 last year. The BTK railway was 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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