Growth of goods, passenger transportation increased
By Sara Israfilbayova
The share of road transport in Azerbaijan accounts for almost 70 percent of cargo transported for half a year, as well as almost 64 percent of passenger transportation.
During the first half of 2018, the growth of transportation of goods and passengers by all modes of transport in Azerbaijan increased by 1-1.5 percent, respectively, compared with the data for the first half of last year.
According to the State Statistics Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, cargo transportation through the territory of the republic reached 110.2 million tons during the first half of the year.
Moreover, for the reporting period, 952.6 million passengers were transported.
In particular, 63.9 percent of all cargoes were transported by road, 26 percent-by pipelines, 6.1 percent - by rail, 3.9 percent-by sea, while only 0.1 percent of transported goods accounted for the share of air transport.
As for the transportation of passengers, most of them (87.3 percent) used road transport.
Azerbaijan mainly transports cargoes via Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, which has been put into operation since October 30 2017.
The BTK railway is constructed on the basis of the
Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey intergovernmental agreement. The main
purpose of the project is to improve economic relations between the
three countries and attract foreign direct investment by connecting
Europe and Asia.
In fact, the BTK railway route is the shortest way to deliver cargo
from the Russian regions located in the Volga, Ural and Siberian
Federal Districts to the Mediterranean ports of Turkey, and further
to the countries of Africa and the Middle East.
The project implementation began in 2007 and construction began in 2008. The line is intended to transport one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight at the first stage. This capacity will then reach 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo.
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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is
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