Azerbaijan allots $403m to Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project
About $403.3 million was allocated since the start of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project's financing by Azerbaijani state oil fund SOFAZ to October 1, a statement posted on the website of the fund said.
According to information, the figure hit $123.5 million in the nine months of 2012.
Funds allocated by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport through the International Bank of Azerbaijan, in accordance with the agreement signed between Azerbaijan and Georgia were transferred to Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway Ltd, created for the design, construction, rehabilitation, renovation and operation of the Marabda railway section on the border with Turkey and the relevant infrastructure objects.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being built in accordance with the Georgian-Azerbaijan-Turkish interstate agreement.
Azerbaijan assigned a loan of $775 million for the construction of the railway's Georgian section. This project is financed by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan in compliance with the order of the President of Azerbaijan 'On the Implementation of Measures on Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Project' of February 21, 2007.
It is planned to construct a new 105-kilometre branch railroad within the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the section of the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway will be reconstructed in Georgia which will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build a place in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing train tracks in Georgia to the European one.
Peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million tons of cargo. This figure will be at the level of one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo initially.