Freight trains will start running along the newly renovated Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway on 20 May 2024. The plan is to turn the line into the main artery of the Middle Corridor and further boost Eurasian rail freight transport, according to Roshvan Rustamov, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways (ADY).
Rustamov mentioned that the works on the Georgian side, where all the projects were being carried out, were recently completed in an interview with the Azerbaijani News Agency Azertag. Previous expectations placed the opening date in April. This month, Rustamov said, should also bring the creation of a joint venture between Georgia and Azerbaijan for the management of the BTK railway.
BTK upgrade
The BTK line runs from the port of Baku, in Azerbaijan, through the Turkish city of Kars via the Georgian capital Tbilisi. It was opened in 2017 and the upgrade project was launched in 2022, for a total cost of about 100 million euros. The actions included the construction of a 61-kilometre railway line, and the laying of 98 kilometres of contact network line, 172 kilometres of 10 kV wire and 338 kilometres of fiber-optic cable. Another big project linked to the BTK was the construction of a 110-hectare logistics complex in Akhalkalaki, near the Georgian-Turkish border. If exploited at its new maximum capacity, traffic along the BTK railway can increase from one to five million tonnes per year.
Image: Wikipedia Commons. © Giorgi Balakhadze
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