Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran can connect railways
By Sara Rajabova
Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran are considering the possibilities of connecting their railways.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov made the remark on March 14, after the meeting of the three countries' foreign ministers in Turkey's Van city.
Mammadyarov said the issue of connecting Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) and Nakhchivan-Julfa-Tabriz railways was also discussed during the meeting of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu said the implementation of projects and the establishment of a railway communication between Asian countries will allow setting up the Great Silk Road railway and allow the transportation of goods from Beijing to London.
Davutoglu stressed that the Marmaray rail tunnel constructed under the Bosphorus strait and commissioned in October 2013, will also play an important role in this process.
Completion of the construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway that will connect Azerbaijan and Turkey is scheduled for mid 2015.
It is planned to construct a new 105 kilometer branch of the railway within the project.
Moreover, the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway in Georgia will be reconstructed. It will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. The construction of a station for transporting trains from the existing tracks in Georgia to the European one is also planned.
The peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. This figure will be at the level of one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo at the initial stage.