BTK project discussed in Georgia
By Jamila Babayeva
The project of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was discussed in a working meeting by the involved parties at Georgian Economy Ministry on January 8th.
The meeting - presided over by Georgia's Deputy Prime Minister- was mainly focused on adopting measures to be implemented in 20-14 to accomplish the project.
Georgia's First Deputy Economy Minister Dmitry Kumsishvili, Deputy Minister Natia Mikeladze, Director of Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC Oleg Bichiashvili, and other high-ranking officials attended the meeting.
BTK project envisages the reconstruction of some 153 kilometers of Marabda-Kartsakhi rails and construction of some 27 kilometers long railway line from Akhalkalaki to the border with Turkey.
Work on the section is being carried out in four stages. Till now, some 31 percent of the total volume of the work on construction of the Georgian section of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway has been completed.
The next meeting of bilateral Georgian-Azerbaijani Coordinating Council on Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project will be held in near future.
Georgian Economy Ministry announced that the financial and technical issues will be discussed at the meeting, the ministry said.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a regional rail link project that connects Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey.
Azerbaijan has allocated a loan worth $775 million for the construction of the Georgian section of the railway. This project is being financed by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan. This came after Azerbaijan's president issued a decree on the 'Implementation of measures within the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project', dated February 21, 2007.
The total length of the BTK is 826 kilometers (about 513 miles). After commissioning the railway, mutual trade between Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey will increase significantly and the total volume will exceed $ 10 billion per year.
Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov said recently the first pilot train will run via the BTK railway at the end of 2014.