Baku-Tbilisi-Kars build speeds up in Georgia

The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway intensified after the appointment of a new administration of Marabda-Kartskahi company, which is responsible for the railway's construction in Georgia, the Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"The company has assured me that the implementation of this regional project intensified dramatically," Ivanishvili underscored.

The PM said that Georgia is ready to continue to actively implement regional projects in future.

"After being elected Prime Minister, I firstly visited Azerbaijan and had a conversation with President Ilham Aliyev, and we agreed to solve all issues in close cooperation," Ivanishvili said.

It is planned to construct a new 105 kilometre branch railway as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the section of the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway will be reconstructed in Georgia, this will increase capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build a centre in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from existing Georgian tracks to European ones.

It is expected that around 30 million tons of cargo a year will be transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway annually. Direct routes to the European rail network will be available.

After the Marmara project (construction of a tunnel under the Bosporus) is completed in the future, a route to Europe via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will exist.

Azerbaijan delivered a loan worth $775 million for the construction of the Georgian section of the railway. The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan's funding for this project is being carried out in accordance with a presidential decree on the 'Implementation of measures within Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project' dated February 21, 2007. Some $431.3 million was allocated for the project by January 2013.


/Trend/