Presidents of Azerbaijan and Georgia to launch part of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project

It is planned that in the 2nd decade of July, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev will visit Turkey. In the course of the visit, Mr Aliev, together with Presidents of Turkey and Georgia Abdullah Gьl and Mikhail Saakashvili, will take in the launching ceremony of the Turkish section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about from diplomatic sources.

The commissioning of the project and start of railway traffic is planned for 2009. By that time, the project Marmaris-under Bosporus tunnel will be over, and it will enable to start railway communication with Europe. Experts forecast that after opening of this railway section the freight turnover of Turkey with Azerbaijan and EU countries will increase many-fold.

Funding of project and construction works in Georgia is made from the USD 200 million credit provided by Azerbaijan. The project assumes to build a new 105-km-long railway branch, of which 76 km will run across Turkey, and 29 km — across Georgia. Besides, Georgia will reconstruct the 183-km-long railway section Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi to upgrade its passage power up to 15 million tons of freight per year. It is also planned to build in Akhalkalaki a train switchover point from the existing gauge in Georgia into the European gauge standard. The project is estimated to cost USD 422 million, and with accompanying infrastructure — USD 600 million.