Testing will Start for Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway Connection Project

A new test train that will travel from Azerbaijan to Turkey has been launched by the Turkish President in a Chinese-Turkish business forum in Beijing.

A test train has been launched via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway on the territory of Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the Chinese-Turkish business forum in Beijing, TRT Haber TV channel reported July 30.

Trend news agency reported that President Erdogan stressed the importance of the BTK project in the field of cargo transportation.
The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) will finance the project in accordance with the Azerbaijani president’s decree
‘On the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project activities’ dated February 21, 2007.

A new 105-kilometer branch of the railroad is being built as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the railway’s Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi section is under reconstruction in Georgia that will increase its capacity to 15 million metric tons of cargo per year.

Currently, a post is under construction in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing tracks in Georgia to the European ones.

The peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million metric tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be equal to one million passengers and 6.5 million metric tons of cargo.