Turkish section of BTK railway draws to end
By Nigar Abbasova
The construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway's Turkish section is complete by 87 percent, IHA agency quoted Ahmet Arslan, Turkish minister of transport, shipping and communications as saying.
The minister said that the BTK is being constructed on schedule, adding that two bridges are being built over the Kars river. He stressed that the project is of particular importance for Turkey.
A 79 kilometer-BTK railway section stretches through Turkey, 58 kilometers accounting for the Kars province. Turkey is also planning to construct a logistics center in the Kars province within the framework of the project.
Earlier the minister said that Turkey is intended to speed up the construction of BTK railway in its territory mentioning that the project will contribute to turning Kars province into a trade center in Turkey, TRT Haber news channel reported.
Previously, Nadir Azmamedov, spokesman for the Azerbaijan Railways told that the countries, involved in the project, are currently seeking to hold a trilateral meeting for defining service conditions and tariff policy for the project.
Being constructed under a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement, BTK is expected to expand multi-modal transportation opportunities, ensure the growth of passenger and freight transportation and boost the transit potential of the regional countries.
The project is expected to further strengthen the neighborly and fraternal relations among Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, and enable the countries to supply domestically produced goods to the world markets.
The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) which is financing the project has already allocated two loans worth $775 million for the construction of the Georgian section. The fund finances the project in accordance with the Azerbaijani president's decree 'On the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project activities', dated February 21, 2007. The funds are transferred to the account of the Marabda-Kartsaxi Railway through the International Bank of Azerbaijan
The peak capacity of the railway will be 17 million tons of cargo per year.
Earlier, Javid Gurbanov, head of Azerbaijan Railways said that the railway will transport five million tons of cargo a year once it is commissioned but the figure is expected to rise up to 17 million tons in the future.
He added that the Georgian section of the BTK railway will be constructed by late 2016.
BTK project is expected to open a new rail corridor from the Caspian Sea to Europe via Turkey, excluding the need for sea transportation.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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