Construction of BTK's Georgian section accelerated
By Nigar Abbasova
Works on the construction of the Georgian section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project (BTK) have been accelerated.
“We have already completed certain part of works and accelerated remaining," said Nadir Azmamedov, spokesman for the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC.
The Georgian section of the project is comprised of four parts including Marabda-Tetriskaro with the length of 29.2 km, Tetriskaro-Tsalka and Tsalka-Akhalkalaki with the length of 49.7 km and 26.3 km respectively.
"We have completed excavation works, construction of artificial structures, installation of communication devices, signals and interlocking systems as well as construction of civic and office buildings in the first section,” he told Trend.
Commenting on the woks done on the second section, Azmamedov said that adjustment and alignment works are currently underway at the site.
“We have completed work on 179 facilities, reconstructed station buildings and installed new equipment in the third section,” he added.
He also mentioned that test freight train has been recently launched at the Marabda-Akhalkalaki section.
The construction of the Akhalkalaki-Kartsakh bridge, with the length of 153 meters has already been completed. As many as four tunnel with the length ranging from 400 to 1,165 meters are currently being constructed at the site.
Azmamedov also said that 10 out of 30 trains, manufactured and delivered by Stadler Company will be launched in August 2016.
Previously, Azmamedov said that the countries, involved in the project, are currently seeking to hold a trilateral meeting for defining service conditions and tariff policy for the project.
Being constructed under a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement, BTK is expected to expand multi-modal transportation opportunities, ensure the growth of passenger and freight transportation and boost the transit potential of the regional countries. It is planned to be commissioned by late 2016.
Azerbaijan allocated a loan of $775 million for the construction of the railway's Georgian section. 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.
The project is expected to play an important role in the development of economic, socio-cultural relations and further strengthen the neighborly and fraternal relations among Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The project will enable the countries to supply domestically produced goods to the world markets as well as increase competitiveness of the transport corridor and attract greater volumes of cargoes. The troika does its best for the successful implementation of the project.
The peak capacity of the railway will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.
BTK project is expected to open a new rail corridor from the Caspian Sea to Europe via Turkey, excluding the need for sea transportation.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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