Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend I.Khalilova / Kazakhstan voiced its interested in joining the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway project. Kazakhstan's Premier Karim Masumov stated in Baku on 4 April that the Transport Ministry of Kazakhstan has been instructed to process an issue on joining to the project. "The work will be complete by the meeting of the heads of states," he noted.
Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani Deputy Transport Minister, Musa Panahov, stated that Azerbaijani Ministry does not support joining of other countries to the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku project in this stage.
"We will construct the route even if another country joins Kazakhstan to the project, because it will not impose any problem for us. At any case, the route will carry cargo," Panahov stressed.
On 7 February 2007 the Transport Ministers of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed an agreement on the commencement of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway route.
The project includes the construction of 98km-railway road with 68km section running via Turkey and 30km-secion via Georgia. Definite reconstruction work will be carried out in the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi section. Average budget of the project is $400mln.