The transport sector in the current year considerably recovered. Although the global financial crisis has had a negative impact on transport volumes last year, this year the transporters are hopeful to increase traffic. Especially last year considerable work was carried out on improving the infrastructure in the transport sector.
According to the data provided by the Transport Ministry of Azerbaijan, investment in the development of the road-transport sector of Azerbaijan in 2009 amounted to 1.372 billion manat. In 2010, the Public budget of Azerbaijan will provide 1.147 billion manat for the transport sector.
One of the major investment projects to be implemented in the transport sector this year is the beginning of construction of a new Baku International Sea Trade Port in Alat settlement in the first quarter of 2010. Construction of the new international seaport in the Alat settlement will be realized in three stages and be completed by 2015. The first stage of the project, which was supposed to cover 2008-2010, envisages construction of two ferries, three cargo bridges for receiving containers, ro-ro type vessels and ordinary (universal) dry cargo ships. The second stage covers 2011-2013 and envisages construction of three cargo bridges, and the third stage of the project (2014-2015) - construction of an additional two cargo bridges. The project of port construction is estimated at more than $400 million. Eleven berths, with six to complete in the first stage of this project, will be built in the new seaport. Therefore, these berths will be built in 2009-2011. After the completion of the construction of the seaport it can accept up to 11.6 million tons of cargo.
In January 2010, cargo transportation by vehicles made up 14.8 million tons of cargo or 8.7% more than 2009. The cargo turnover increased by 9.5 percent. The private sector share in cargo transportation was 70.6% due to efficient operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
In 2010, automobile transport took the lion share in the transport field of the country. The cargo transportation by vehicles made up 6.8mln tons of cargo, or 7.0% more than the same period of 2009. Passenger transportation comprised 84.4mln people with 96.9% people using buses and 3.1% people vehicles. During the reported period, cargo turnover by road transport grew by 7.7 percent compared with January last year, while passenger traffic rose by 8.8 percent.
One of the reasons for the growth of road transport is improvement after the reconstruction of the road.
In January 2010, the Azerbaijan State Railway Department (ASRD) transported 1.7mln tons of cargo, an increase of 13.3% compared to 2009. The number of loaded carriages made up 666 in average and unloaded - 340. Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 33,000 tons and in western direction - 7,700, but in the southern direction - 2,700.
The cargo shipping via sea rose by 16.4% to 1 million tons in January 2010. 76.5 percent of cargo shipping fell on oil and oil products, while 23.5 on dry cargo. All cargo deliveries were implemented under the international operations. The volume of cargo processed in Azerbaijani ports was 364,000 million tons in January 2010, or 11.9 percent less as compared to last year figure. As of February 1, 2010, 2,800 tons of cargo left in the ports for import, which is 2.5 times less compared to last year.
In January 2010, the export via oil pipelines made up 4.0 million tons. During this period, ¾ part or 3.0 million tons of oil was transported via the BTC (data provided by the State Statistics Committee).
Transportation via gas pipelines made up 1.7bln cubic meters or 10.5% more than 2009. The major reason for the growth is the export of the Azerbaijani gas to the foreign markets. 27.1% of the transported gas fell on South Caucasus Pipeline. About 466.4 million cubic meters of gas was transported via this pipeline.
In January 2010, the passenger transportation via airways fell by 31% to 62,400 people, including 29.8% implemented by private sector. Greater part (70.2%) fell on public sector.
Metro remains the most popular and profitable modes of transport. The Baku Metro conveys 550,000-560,000 passengers per day on average. It conveys around 700,000 passengers on working days.
In January 2010, 14.9mln passengers used metro services or 17.6% rise.
In January 2010, 47.4mln tons of cargo (a decrease of 2.7%) and 206.7mln passengers (a rise of 7.4%) were transported via the Eurasian corridor.