Tunnel construction for Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway to be mulled for first time in Tbilisi

Tbilisi is hosting the first meeting of the joint Georgian-Turkish commission to promote the construction of a railway tunnel on the new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line.

From the Georgian side the meeting is being attended by representatives of the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Tax Service, Marabda-Kartsakhi LLC and the Georgian Railway. Among the participants on the Turkish side are representatives of the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Customs and Trade and the Ardahan district's authorities.

As stated by the participants, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway construction project is entering a new phase with the tunnel that will connect Georgia and Turkey begins.

Today, there was an inspection of the construction work on site in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project provides for renewal and reconstruction of the Marabda-Akhalkalaki railway line across Georgia and construction of a new railway line from Akhalkalaki to the Turkish border.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being built on the basis of a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish inter-state agreement. Azerbaijan provided a loan worth $775 million for construction of the Georgian section. Funding for this project from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan is carried out according to a presidential decree on the 'Implementation of measures within Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project' dated February 21, 2007. At least $431.3 million has been allocated since the beginning of the funding of the project up until January 1, 2013.

Plans exist to construct a new 105 kilometre branch railroad within the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway will be reconstructed in Georgia which will increase its capacity to expand to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build a centre in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing train tracks in Georgia to the European system.

Peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million tons of cargo. This figure will initially be at the level of one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.

In future, with completion of the Marmaray project (construction of a tunnel under the Bosporus), giving access to Europe will be provided through the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.


/Trend/