Construction of Azerbaijan-Russia bridge nears completion
By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade
A checkpoint on the Azerbaijani-Russian border and the construction of an automobile bridge across the Samur River were inspected by a group of senior officials of the State Border Service of Azerbaijan and other state institutions on June 7.
Chief of the State Border Service, Colonel-General Elchin Guliyev; Chairman of the State Customs Committee, customs service Lieutenant-General Safar Mehdiyev; and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Azerbaijan Highway State Agency Saleh Mammadov attended the event.
During the inspection they discussed issues regarding present situation at the "Samur" customs and border checkpoint and regulation of interaction of local departments of the State Customs Committee and the State Border Service.
In addition, several reports were made by the officials.
Due to a noticeable growth in the amount of passenger and freight traffic (including agricultural freight from Azerbaijan to Russia) and the improving of measures to ensure border security, instructions were given to tighten customs and border control on the crossing of the state border by people, vehicles and cargo.
Also, an inspection of the progress of restoration works at the “Samur” customs and border checkpoint and of the construction of an automobile bridge was carried out.
The inspectors were provided with information on current and further construction work and it was noted that the work is scheduled to be finished soon.
The bridge will be 325.3 meters long and 17.3 meters wide. The roadway will consist of 3 lanes.
The opening of the new bridge will allow vehicles to pass across the border faster and will further increase the freight traffic between Azerbaijan and Russia. Furthermore, this bridge is part of the project to expand the effectiveness of the International North-South Transport Corridor.
In general, Azerbaijan and Russia intend to develop comprehensive cooperation in the railway sector by using the transport and transit potential of national railway companies through the joint implementation of measures that will contribute to the growth of cargo traffic via the Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia-Europe routes within the North-South Transport Corridor and the Russia-Azerbaijan-Turkey route by using the infrastructure of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.
The North-South Transport Corridor envisages connecting India with the Middle East and the Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe. The purpose of the corridor is to reduce the delivery time to three weeks from India to Russia, as well as to North and West Europe while the current route takes more than six weeks.
The expected volume of cargo to pass through the territory of Azerbaijan via the corridor is 3 million tons at the first, 5-8 million tons at the second and 15 million tons at the third stages.
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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1
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