Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

The construction of a tunnel through the Georgian-Turkish border will begin as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project in the near future, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways company Arif Asgarov said.

The equipment and machinery were delivered for the construction of the tunnel, designed to connect Georgia and Turkey," he said. "The construction work is planned to be launched in the near future."

According to Asgarov, landslide affected areas were revealed during construction, thus the tunnel route has been changed.

"Earlier, the project entailed the laying of a 1.2 kilometer tunnel," he added. "Its length was increased to 2.07 kilometers."

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being built in accordance with an inter-governmental agreement reached by Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The railway will increase the flow of containers and other types of cargo from Asia to Europe.

Azerbaijan has allocated a $775 million loan for the construction of the Georgian section of the railway. Funding for the project from the State Oil Fund is carried out in accordance with the 2007 presidential decree on taking measures within the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project.

It is planned to construct a new 105 kilometer branch railway as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, reconstruction work will be carried out on the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway in Georgia, which will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is envisioned to build a center in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing train tracks in Georgia to the European ones.

Around 30 million tons of cargo a year are to be transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, which will become a direct route to the European rail network.