Azerbaijan, Baku, 18 September / Trend corr. E.Ismayilov /"State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAR) will allocate AZN100mln to Georgia to implement the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway," Shahmar Movsumov, Head of the Fund, said on 18 September. In 2008, Azerbaijan has already allocated AZN30mln for this purpose.
Azerbaijan plans to allocate $200mln from the Fund to reconstruct the Georgian section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. The Government chose the International Bank of Azerbaijan to allocate the funds. The funds will be transferred via IBA's Georgian based branch.
At the first operation stage of the new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, it will transport about 1mln of passengers and 6.5mln tons of cargo. In 2034, the figure will increase to 3mln passengers and 18mln tons of cargo.
The Baku- Tbilisi- Kars project includes the construction of 105km-railway lines, with 76 km section running via Turkey and 29 km section via Georgia. Moreover, 183 km section of Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi railway will be also reconstructed to improve the carrying capacity to 15mln tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build in Akhalkalaki a place for the transition of trains from the track existing in Georgia to the European one. The project is estimated at $422mln and taking into consideration the accompanying infrastructure its cost will comprise $600mln.
