Azernews.Az

Construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project will be continued under the new government in Georgia, Georgian Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure David Narmania told reporters on Friday.

Currently, work is being carried out on one of the highest areas and due to complexity of the work, the project will be completed in 2014 instead of 2013, Narmania said.

It is planned to construct a new 105-kilometre branch railroad within the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the section of the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway will be reconstructed in Georgia which will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build sidings in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing train tracks in Georgia to the European one.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project aims to link directly the railway systems of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to transport large amounts of cargo and passengers.

According to Azerbaijan Railways chairman Arif Asgarov, the railway will be fully commissioned in 2014, while a first test train to the Turkish border is planned to be dispatched by late 2012.

The project will increase the flow of containers and other types of cargo from Asia to Europe. Its throughput capacity will peak at 17 million tons of cargo per year. Initially, the capacity will be 6.5 million tons of consignments and 1 million passengers.