Full-scale commissioning of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway expected in late May - Georgian PM
TBILISI. May 19 (Interfax) - The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will be fully operational by the end of May, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said.
"We have finally agreed with the Azerbaijani side on all the details regarding the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, and this section of the railway will begin operating by the end of the month," Kobakhidze was quoted by bm.ge as saying on Tuesday.
"A joint Georgian-Azerbaijani venture will be established, and the railway will be operated in this format," he said. The state-owned Georgian Railways will operate the Georgian section of the BTK railroad.
Moreover, passenger rail service between Georgia and Azerbaijan will resume on May 26, Kobakhidze added.
"Together with Azerbaijan, we are connecting the Caspian Sea with the Black Sea, and thus Europe with Asia, and the development of cooperation between Georgia and Azerbaijan is of strategic importance," he said.
The Georgian Economy Ministry said that Georgia and Azerbaijan had signed a protocol of the bilateral coordination council the previous day, providing for the full commissioning of a new section of the BTK railway. "This successfully concludes the long-term implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project - a strategic initiative whose foundation was laid in 2007," the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry noted that over the years, the project had encountered numerous technical, infrastructural, legal and organizational challenges that had impeded its full completion and full-scale operation. "The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line is already a key component of the Middle Corridor [Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, or TITR] and plays a special role in developing competitive transport and logistics routes between Asia and Europe," the statement said.
The construction of the 827-kilometer BTK railroad began in November 2008 based on an Azerbaijani-Georgian-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railway's opening date has been repeatedly postponed. The construction of the BTK railway was completed in technical terms in October 2017, and freight traffic was opened.
As planned, after the BTK railroad is fully operational, annual freight traffic along this corridor will increase from 1 million to 5 million tonnes per year, with the potential to reach 15 million tonnes.
