Construction of regional railway's Turkish section nearing completion
By Sabina Idayatova
Work is being completed on the Turkish section of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway line, Azerbaijani Consul General in
Kars Ayhan Suleymanov, who reviewed the ongoing operations at the
last area of construction in the Arpachay region, told journalists,
Azerbaijan's state news agency Azertag reported on Sunday.
The head of the company carrying out the construction work, Mehmet Ozturk, told the Azerbaijani diplomat that 60 percent of the work has already been completed.
Ozturk said the infrastructure and the required tunnel will be ready by the end of this year and there won`t be any problems with fulfilling the schedule on commissioning the railway line.
According to Consul Suleymanov, many businessmen from Azerbaijan are seeking to invest in Kars. The railway project will be of great importance for the economy of Kars, as 3,000 new jobs will be opened.
The BTK railway project aims to link directly the railway systems of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to transport large amounts of cargo and passengers.
The railway is being built in accordance with an inter-governmental agreement reached by the three countries. The railway will increase the flow of containers and other types of cargo from Asia to Europe. Its throughput capacity will peak at 17 million tons of cargo per year. Initially, the capacity will be 6.5 million tons of consignments and 1 million passengers.
Azerbaijan has allocated a loan worth $775 million for the construction of the Georgian section of the railway. Funding for the project from the State Oil Fund is carried out in accord with the 2007 presidential decree on taking measures within the BTK project.