Russian cargo to be transported via Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway

By Azernews

By Rasana Gasimova

Russia will use Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway for the transportation of its mining and metallurgical industry products, Trend reported on October 7, citing ADY Express LLC.

This was announced during the 10th international “Railway Transportation of Mining and Metallurgical Cargo” conference held in Moscow, Russia.

During the event, representatives of ADY Express LLC (a subsidiary of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC) presented their options for the transportation of these types of goods from Russia to the countries located in the south-west direction. Speaking about the capabilities of the Azerbaijan Railways and major infrastructure projects such as Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK), the company representatives demonstrated the advantage of transit routes via Azerbaijan and Turkey..

It was also noted that the BTK railway is more commercially advantageous compared to traditional routes.

As part of the conference, ADY Express LLC representatives held bilateral meetings with Russian major cargo owners where ADY Express LLC received orders for the cargo delivery of the mining and metallurgical industries along the BTK railway corridor.

The transportation of these goods will begin in the near future.

Note that the cargo transit traffic through Azerbaijan reached 4.1 million tons in the first six months of 2019.

In particular, the volume of cargo transported via the International North-South Transport Corridor amounted to 131,000 tons for the reported period. This represented a 63-percent growth.

The North-South Transport Corridor which is designed to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia, including the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia plays a major role in it. The coverage of the transport corridor is impressive - it is multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.

Meanwhile, the volume of transit goods transported via the North-West corridor amounted to 829,000 tons (an increase of 70 percent), and the volume of non-oil goods transported along the East-West corridor equaled 795,000 tons (an increase of 42.8 percent).

Currently, there are several routes from East to Europe pass through the territory of Azerbaijan. Among such projects are the International North-South Transport Corridor, which is constructed to transport goods from India and the Persian Gulf countries to Russia, Western Europe, the Baltic and Scandinavian countries.

Moreover, being a part of the East-West Corridor, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is built at the initiative of Azerbaijan, allows supplying cargo to Europe. Another example is the Lapis Lazuli corridor, which runs from Afghanistan to Azerbaijan, Turkey and further to Europe.

The implementation of important infrastructure projects not only increases the economic power of Azerbaijan, but also strengthens its international image.