Azernews.Az

Georgian Railway JSC has begun the implementation of a project on the construction of a high-speed railway that will increase the capacity of Georgia's railway to 40 million tons of cargo per year, a Georgian official told Azerbaijan's Trend news agency on October 23.

Ketevan Salukvadze, Head of Transport Policy Department of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, said it is planned to implement the project until 2016-2017.

According to Salukvadze, along with increasing the capacity, the new project is designed to ensure the maximum security of the railway and reduce the time of cargo transportation.

Salukvadze stressed that in order to achieve these goals, modernization of the current railway infrastructure as well as the construction of a new railway line will be carried out under the project. A new railway tunnel equipped with a modern signalling system will be part of this line.

Talking about the realization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project, Salukvadze said that in accordance with the current work schedule, the Georgian section of the railway will be completed in 2015.

According to her, under the project some 78 percent of the work in the first section (Marabda- Tetritskaro), 54 percent of the work in the second section (Tetritskaro-Tsalka), 23 percent of the operations in the third section (Tsalka-Akhalkalaki), nine percent of the work in the fourth section (train station), 39 percent of the work at the railway station and 33 percent of the work in the fifth section of the railway (Akhalkalaki-Kartsakhi) has been completed so far.

Salukvadze said the total cost of the project in Georgia amounts to $767 million.

A new, 105 kilometer branch of the railway is planned to be constructed. Moreover, the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway in Georgia will be reconstructed, which will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is also planned to construct a station for transferring trains from the existing tracks in Georgia to European ones.

30 million tons of cargo per year is expected to be transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route, which will have a direct link to the European railway network.