Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 17
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Turkey welcomes cooperation between Iran and Azerbaijan in the transport sector, and does not consider the North-South transport corridor an alternative to the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Turkey Mehmet Cahit Turhan told Trend in an exclusive interview.
Azerbaijan is currently participating with Turkey in the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project, which was launched at the end of 2017, and with Iran in the North-South transport corridor project.
The minister noted that Turkey always considers railways as a “brotherly bridge” between neighboring countries.
"Due to the fact that the construction of railways is relatively cheap and is an environmentally friendly project, Turkey pays special attention to the development of railway infrastructure," Turhan said.
The minister also noted that high-speed railways are being built from the western to the eastern border of Turkey, and at the same time the old railways are being modernized.
A solemn ceremony was held on October 30, 2017 at the Baku International Sea Trade Port in order to mark the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. The total length of the BTK is 826 kilometers.
The BTK railway is built on the basis of the Azerbaijani-Georgian-Turkish interstate agreement.
The North-South transport corridor is designed to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia, in particular to connect the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. It is planned to transport five million tons of cargo per year at the first stage, and more than 10 million tons of cargo in the future through this corridor.
The project is designed to transport goods from India and the Persian Gulf states to Western and Northern Europe through the territories of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia, in particular by connecting the railways of these three countries.
The main advantage of the corridor is the reduction of the delivery time by two or three times.
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