Azerbaijan to build railway to liberated Shusha
By Vugar Khalilov
Azerbaijan is building a railway to Shusha in Karabakh region after the city’s liberation from the Armenian occupation in autumn 2020.
Azerbaijan Railways CJSC jointly with Turkey’s Kalyon has already started the design of the railway in the direction of Shusha, the company director Javid Gurbanov told reporters on July 23.
Gurbanov said that Azerbaijan Railways is currently working in the Karabakh and East Zangazur economic regions on the design and construction of railways in three directions: Horadiz-Nakhchivan (115 km to the border with Armenia), Shusha and Aghdam. However, he did not specify the length of the railway.
At the same time, he stressed that work has already begun on the construction of a railway in the direction of the city of Agdam (railway Barda-Agdam), which is being carried out by a local company.
“Already 20 km of railway track has been laid in the direction of Aghdam. But the implementation of these works is complicated by the need for demining on the territory of the route. Mines were found during the construction of the railway. Fortunately, they did not explode,” Gurbanov said.
Reminding that Shusha has been declared Azerbaijan’s cultural capital under the presidential order this year, Gurbanov stressed the importance of building a railway to the city.
It should be noted that in late 2020, Azerbaijan Railways received 5 million manats ($ 2.94m) from the state budget to start work on the design and construction of the Barda-Agdam railway, which is 45 km long.
Azerbaijan is carrying out massive reconstruction work in its liberated territories.
The government allocated AZN 2.2 billion ($1.3bn) for reconstruction works in the liberated territories in 2021. In particular, these fund will be used to restore the infrastructure (electricity, gas, water, communications, roads, education, health, etc), as well as cultural and historical monuments.
Azerbaijan liberated 300 city centers, settlements, villages and the historic Shusha city in the war that lasted from September 27 to November 10. The Russian-brokered peace deal also stipulated the return of Kalbajar, Lachin and Aghdam regions occupied by the Armenian forces in the war in the early 1990s.
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