BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.24
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
The volume of Turkey’s cargo transportation reached 30 million tons in 2020, General Manager of the State Railways Property Directorate (TCDD) Hasan Pezuk said, Trend reports referring to TCDD.
According to Pezuk, presently, Turkey carries out cargo shipments via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway line on export container trains to several European countries, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and China.
"Owing to our country’s port network, we have cargo transportation opportunities from Asia to the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean," he noted.
Besides, according to him, over the past 18 years, the Turkish railway sector has achieved big successes in all areas.
"During this period, 171.6 billion Turkish liras ($24.3 billion) were invested in the railway sector. When creating the main corridor, preference was given to cargo transportation projects by rail to increase transit transport opportunities, both at the national level and between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as for the development of multimodal transportation," added the general manager.
Pezuk also pointed out that to date, three export container trains have been sent from Turkey to China, and a total of 11 export container trains.
"Our first two export trains exported household appliances to China. Via the BTK our first export train with household appliances has also been sent from Turkey to Russia. We closely work with our exporters for expanding the cooperation. I would like to proudly announce that the demand for the BTK and Iron Silk Road corridors is growing," he said.
The general manager noted that the BTK and Iron Silk Road (the railway corridor connecting China to Europe and the Middle East through Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine ) are very important international railway corridors because cargo shipment via the routes is more profitable, faster, and safer.
"Thanks to these advantages, export cargoes are delivered from Turkey to Russia just in 8 days, from China to Turkey in 12 days, and from China to Europe in 18 days," summed up Pezuk.
In 2020, Turkey's export railway shipments surged by 35 times.
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