Turkey wants to launch Baku-Tbilisi-Kars rail route by late 2015

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Turkish Transport, Maritime and Communication Minister Lutfi Elvan said Turkey wants to launch Baku-Tbilisi-Kars rail route by end of 2015, the Anadolu News Agency reported Dec. 22

 

The minister also added that the route will link Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

 

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.

 

The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) finances the project in accordance with the Azerbaijani president’s decree ‘On the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project activities’ dated February 21, 2007.

 

A new 105-kilometer branch of the railroad is being constructed as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the railway’s Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi section is under reconstruction in Georgia that will increase its capacity to 15 million metric tons of cargo per year. A post is under construction in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing tracks in Georgia to the European ones.

 

The peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million metric tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be equal to one million passengers and 6.5 million metric tons of cargo.

 

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