Azerbaijan Railways commissions new base
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan Railways Closed Joint Stock Company has commissioned a new base in Bilajari.
The new Train Emergencies LLC base is intended for disaster and emergency situations on the railways.
The total area of the base, which consists of an administrative building, repair shops and other facilities, is 25,296 square meters.
Work on the establishment of the base has been carried out within the framework of the State program for the development of the railway system of Azerbaijan for 2010-2014 approved by the presidential decree dated July 6, 2010.
Azerbaijan Railways modernized the logistical base of the LLC to take measures to prevent oil spills in accordance with the Rail Trade and Transport project financed by the World Bank.
The opening ceremony of the new base was attended by Azerbaijan's Deputy Transport Minister Musa Panahov, Deputy Head of the Azerbaijan Railways Alirza Suleymanov, as well as representatives of the World Bank.
Azerbaijan Railways ranks 57th in the world for the length of railroads. Currently, the total length of main roads is 2932 km; the operational length is 2,117 km, including 815 km of bilateral roads. 1,272 km of the total length of the path, i.e. 60 percent is electrified, 845 km, i.e., 40 percent is operated by the diesel traction.
Earlier, the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers increased the authorized capital of Azerbaijan Railways by 21.2 percent-from 599 million manats to 726.146 million manats.
Azerbaijan Railways' revenues amounted to 223.1 million manats in 2013. The revenues were generated through freight (208.2 million manats) and passenger (14.9 million manats) transportation.
The company's expenditures in 2013 reached 214 million manats, and the company's net profit last year was 9 million manats.
Azerbaijan Railways transported 23.2 million tons of cargo and 2.5 million passengers in 2013.