Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 8 /Trend E.Ismayilov/
The issue of building a new Kars-Nakhchivan railway retains relevance, head of JSC Azerbaijan Railways press service Nadir Azmammadov told Trend.
It will provide a way to Turkey by rail, both for passengers and cargo.
The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is under siege because of the occupation of 20 per cent of Azerbaijani lands. The communication with the NAR is either by air, or by road through Iran.
"This question is still valid. The head of JSC is in Nakhchivan in this regard," Azmammadov said.
According to him, the creation of the new railway is the subject of negotiations between the Azerbaijani and Turkish sides.
Currently, work is underway on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway which is intended to unite the railway systems of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The route will be launched at the end of 2012 and the railway fully commissioned in 2013.
It is planned to construct a new 105-kilometre branch railroad as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the section of the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway will be reconstructed in Georgia which will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. It is planned to build a base in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing train tracks in Georgia to the European one.
Peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million tons of cargo. This figure will be at the level of one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo initially.
