Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway on Schedule Says Head of Azerbaijan Railways JSC

Work on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway, which will assist cargo transportation between Asia and Europe is on schedule, says Arif Askerof, Head of Azerbaijan Railways Joint Stock Company.

He was commenting after rumours that the works had stopped due to a rise in costs. Deputy Transport Minister Musa Panahov said the rumours did not correspond with reality, and the project continued as planned. He said the railway would be commissioned in 2014, on schedule.

Azerbaijan has allocated a loan of $775m for construction of the Georgian section of the railway by Georgia. $200m covers the work from 2007 to date and a second tranche of $575m to offset increases in raw materials costs and reconstruct a 183 kilometre section of the Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi railway as part of the project, will be made available over 25 years.

The agreement to build the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was signed in 2007, and was hoped to bring greater co-operation between Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia.

98km of new line will be built between Kars and Akhalkalaki, 68 km in Turkey and 30 km in Georgia. Existing line between Akhalkalaki and Marabda and on to Tbilisi and Baku will be reconstructed and modernised.