Turkey expects Kars-Nakhchivan rail line to be built in five years

BAKU. Dec 22 (Interfax) - Turkey aims to complete construction of a 224-km railway between the Turkish city of Kars and Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan in the next five years, Turkish Deputy Trade Minister Ozgur Volkan said on Thursday.

This project is very important because the railway, along which trains will travel at speeds of 160 km per hour, will connect the countries of Central and South Asia with all of Europe, Volkan said at a panel session on the role of transport and logistics centers in increasing bilateral trade at the Azerbaijan-Turkey Investment Forum.

President Ilham Aliyev and President Recep Erdogan signed a letter of intent in September 2023 to build the Kars-Nakhchivan railway.

"I am confident that this project will be successfully realized and thus one of the branches of the Middle Corridor [of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR)] will serve the interests of both Azerbaijan and Turkey, and other countries," Aliyev said at the time.

Kars is the final stop of an 826-km railway that runs through Baku and Tbilisi, linking the railway networks of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, opened in 2017, is an integral part of the TITR.