Azerbaijan, Baku, February 21/ Trend E.Ismaylov/
As of Jan 1, 2012 Azerbaijan had injected $279.813.655 million into the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project financing since the start of project, the head of Azerbaijan Railways Arif Asgarov said in interview with the "Respublika" newspaper.
The construction of a new rail link enables work to take place on the building, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Marabda-Akhalkalaki section (except for the station), as well as the construction works from Akhalkalaki to the Turkish border (Kartsakhi).
The Marabda-Akhalkalaki section includes work in three phases: the Marabda-Tetritskaro site - 29.2 kilometres, Tetritskaro-Tsalka site - 49.7 kilometres and Tsalka-Akhalkalaki site- 74.1 kilometres.
As Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov said earlier, project partners will launch two pilot trains at the end of 2012. The railway will be put into full operation during the first half of 2013.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being built in accordance with the Georgian-Azerbaijan-Turkish interstate agreement.
Azerbaijan assigned a loan of $775 million for construction of the railway's Georgian section. This project is financed by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan in compliance with the Order of the President of Azerbaijan On the Implementation of Measures on Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Project' of February 21, 2007.
The project sees the laying of a new, 105-kilometre section, including 76 and 29 kilometres to pass through Turkey and Georgia, respectively.
The railway's peak throughput capacity will make up to 17 million tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this indicator will be equivalent to one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargoes.