Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend K.Konirova, S.Babayeva / Azerbaijan propsoed Kazakhstan to accelerate work over construction of the Caspian segment of the Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fibre optic cable via the Siyazan (Azerbaijan) - Aktau (Kazakhstan) route, Jalil Jafarov, the head of the International Relations and Calculations Center of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies, said in Astana on 13 November.
During the meeting on 12 November Azerbaijan initiated holding a tender and developing a feasibility study of the project.
Jafarov said that the final decision on further activities will be adopted as a result of the further meeting, which will be held in Baku within the framework of 13th international exhibition and conference BakuTel 2007 due on 21-24 November. The gathering will adopt a detail plan and relevant protocol will be signed.
The sides have a protocol, signed between the operators of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan Азербайджана - the Center of International Relations and Calculation of the Azerbaijani Ministry and KazTransCom of Kazakhstan. In accordance with the document, 50% of expenses will be concerned by Azerbaijan and 50% by Kazakhstan.
In accordance with the estimations held by 1999, the cost of construction of the communications cable via the sea is $10mln. Jafarov said that the budget of the project might increase. The final budget will be defined through the tender.
The length of the route between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan will comprise approximately 380km. At present the existing route runs via Turkmenistan and Iran, bypassing Azerbaijan.
According to the Azerbaijani Communications Ministry, the construction of the TAE cable through Azerbaijan will lead to reducing routes by 2,000km, which will accelerate the data delivery traffic.