Georgia, Tbilisi / Тrend corr N. Kirtskhalia / Eight companies will participate in the international tender of Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC to develop a working project for the rehabilitation, reconstruction and construction of Marabda-Akhalkalaki-freight railway, according to the Georgian Railway LLC.
The names of the companies are not available. "The proposals of the companies were submitted to the Economy Ministry. The ministry will study them within two weeks and will give the qualification of tenders. Later the second stage will take place. The companies with the qualification will make their financial proposals," according to Georgian Railway LLC.
In accordance with tender terms Marabda-Akhalkalaki-freight railway (width-1,520mm) will provide transportation for 15mln tons of freight. The seismological durability of the railway is 8-magnitude.
The project will envisage the energy supply of the railway, the establishment of adequate communication systems, including fibre-optic cable, as well as the projection of all attendant infrastructures. Financing of the projecting work will be held by Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC.
The successful tender must be able to submit the project in stages by 1 July 2008. Construction of the railway section is planned to begin in 2008 to be completed in 2010.
The Baku- Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki- Kars project includes the construction of 105km-railway road with 76 km section running via Turkey and 29 km section via Georgia. Moreover, 183 km section of Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi railway will be also reconstructed to improve the carrying capacity to 15mln tons of cargo per year. The project is assessed at $422mln and taking into account the infrastructure - $600mln.
A $200mln credit will be allocated to the Georgian Government by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan through the Azerbaijani Ministry for 25 years with 1% interest rate. Credit will be repaid at the expense of the funds received from exploitation of the railway. Turkey will finance the projecting work.