New infrastructure to be built along Georgian section of BTK railway

6 March 2018 10:56 (UTC+04:00)

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New infrastructure will be built along the Akhalkalaki-Kartsakhi section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC said in a message March 5.

Tbilisi hosted a regular meeting of the BTK Coordination Council, according to the message.

“During the meeting, Georgia’s first deputy prime minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Dimitri Kumsishvili told the audience about the economic, political and cultural ties between Azerbaijan and Georgia and stressed that the BTK and other regional projects play an important role in the development of bilateral relations,” the message said.

The minister reminded about his last meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and highly appreciated the attention paid by the head of state to the BTK project.

In his turn, Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijan’s economy minister, chairman of the Coordinating Council for Transit Freight, who participated in the meeting, noted that the BTK and other projects implemented jointly by Azerbaijan and Georgia serve to improving the welfare of the two peoples.

“We believe the BTK and other projects will play an important role in the development of not only the South Caucasus, but also Europe, its connection with Asia,” Mustafayev said.

From the Azerbaijani side, Javid Gurbanov, chairman of the Azerbaijan Railways, Shahmar Movsumov, executive director of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), officials of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Finance, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Georgia Dursun Hasanov took part in the meeting.

Official opening ceremony of the BTK railway was held in Baku Oct. 30, 2017. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis of a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.

The railway’s peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.

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