Progress in building regional railway's Georgian section in focus
By Nigar Orujova
Accelerating the construction of the Marabda-Kartsakhi section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway in Georgia was discussed at the Georgian Economy Ministry on Tuesday, the ministry said.
The project aims to link directly the railway systems of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to transport large amounts of cargo and passengers. The railway is being built in accordance with an inter-governmental agreement reached by the three countries.
According to the ministry, Minister Irakli Kvirikashvili met with Marabda-Kartsakhi bilateral coordination council chairman Javid Gurbanov, head of Azeryolservis JSC of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport.
The parties discussed and agreed on plans for future activities to accelerate the work on the Georgian section of the railway.
It is planned to construct a new 105-kilometer railway section as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. Moreover, the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway section will be reconstructed in Georgia, which will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is also envisioned to build a center in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing train tracks in Georgia to the European ones.
The BTK railway 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.
The railway will be fully commissioned in 2014, according to Azerbaijan Railways chairman Arif Asgarov.
In 2007, Azerbaijan allocated a $200 million loan to Georgia for 25 years, with an interest rate of one percent, to finance the construction and rehabilitation of the Georgian section of the railway. An agreement to allocate additional $575 million to the Georgian side was signed in July 2011. These funds were allocated for a period of 25 years, at a rate of five percent.
The State Oil Fund finances the project in accordance with the presidential decree on implementing measures within the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project, dated February 21, 2007.
The oil fund allocated $403.3 million from the start of financing the project until October 1, 2012.
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