Azernews.Az

By Jamila Babayeva

There are no obstacles on the way of construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, Georgian Economy Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said on December 24.

"Despite of the certain problems caused by the weather, the work is going at very high speed" he said.

The minister further said a meeting of the Georgian-Azerbaijani commission for the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be held soon.

"All works are going in accordance with the plan and we are confident that all the commitments made by the Georgian side will be fulfilled in time," Kvirikashvili said.

Kvirikashvili stressed that Georgia will commission all facilities at its section of BTK in time.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a regional rail link project to directly connect Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Azerbaijan allocated a loan worth $775 million for the construction of the Georgian section of the railway. This project is being financed by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan after the Azerbaijani presidential decree on the 'Implementation of measures within the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project', dated February 21, 2007.

The total length of the BTK is 826 kilometers (about 513 miles). After commissioning of the railway mutual trade between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey will increase significantly, the total volume will exceed $ 10 billion per year.

Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov said recently the first pilot train will run via the BTK railway at the end of 2014.