Azernews.Az

By Jamila Babayeva

The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will come to an end in mid-2015.

The railway will connect Azerbaijan and Turkey.

"The process of government change and structural reforms in Georgia justifies reason for the delays in implementing the project," Head of Azeryolservis JSC (road transport infrastructure) of the Ministry of Transport Javid Gurbanov told journalists.

It led to the delay in the construction of a railway tunnel on the Georgian-Turkish border, stretching 4.2 kilometers (2.2 kilometers of which fall on Turkey's territory), he said.

Gurbanov said despite the fact that building the tunnels has been completed in Turkey, the work in Georgia`s territory has started recently due to the above-mentioned reasons, and about 70 meters of the tunnel have already been laid.

"As part of the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway that will stretch for 180 kilometers, work on 100 kilometers of the railroad tracks has already been completed. Furthermore, launching a test locomotive from Azerbaijan to the Georgian-Turkish border is planned in late 2014 under the project," he said.

The BTK railway is a regional rail link project that connects Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey.

Azerbaijan has allocated a $775 million loan to the construction of the Georgian section of the railway. The project is being financed by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan.

The project was implemented after Azerbaijan's President issued a 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 the railway, mutual trade between Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey will increase significantly, the total volume exceeding $10 billion per year.