Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

Azerbaijan and Georgia have reached complete understanding on all issues on the agenda of the Coordinating Council for the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov said following the Tbilisi meeting of the Council on Wednesday.

"The most important thing on today's agenda is approving the budget for the Georgian section, which will amount to $175 million this year," Mammadov said.

Azerbaijan provided a $775 million loan for the construction of the Georgian section of the regional railway.

Funding for this project from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan is carried out according to a presidential decree on the "Implementation of measures within 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.

Mammadov said the Azerbaijani, Georgian and Turkish sides are ready to fulfill their obligations under the project and noted that a trilateral meeting of the Coordinating Council will be held in Istanbul on February 22.

Speaking about the project realization timeline, Mammadov said that after the improvement of weather conditions, work will continue rapidly, and trains will be running on this line by late 2013. "We have been promised and we believe that this will be fulfilled," he said.

The Georgian side already announced that construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is underway in accordance with the plan.

It is planned to construct a new 105-kilometer branch railroad as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda section of the railway will be reconstructed in Georgia, which will increase the rail line's capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. A center is to be built in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing train tracks in Georgia to the European ones.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars 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.

Mammadov also commented on the remarks of Armenian Deputy Transport Minister Artashes Avetisyan, who claimed that "if possible, Armenia would like to use the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad in the future."

Mammadov stressed that Armenia cannot use the BTK railway without Azerbaijan's permission.

"Let me remind everyone that this project is carried out on Azerbaijan's initiative, as well as funded from the state budget of our country. Since Armenia occupied our territories, the country has no right to use this railroad as long as the Karabakh conflict is not resolved, and Armenia cannot join this project without our permission," the Azerbaijani minister said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994. Armenian armed forces have since occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region, defying international calls and UN resolutions.