BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 11
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
Some 154,836 tons of cargo (2,468 wagons) were transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway in the first quarter of 2021, Trend reports citing the Turkish media.
“The cargo transportation increased by 50 percent this year compared to the same period of last year (78,000 tons in 2020),” Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu said.
Karaismailoglu stressed that Turkey carries out container transportation to Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, as well as to Russia and China.
“Moreover, Turkey intends to increase the volume of cargo transportation with Iran up to one million tons by the end of this year,” the Turkish minister added.
"The work is underway to transport cargo through Iran to third countries, namely, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China,” the Turkish minister said. “The cooperation with friendly and fraternal countries contributes to the implementation of many promising projects. One of the main examples is the BTK railway."
The volume of cargo transportation via BTK and the Middle corridor increased by 104 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year and amounted to 396,778 tons.
"BTK has become a new direction for the world transportation by railway,” the Turkish minister said. “Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for cargo transportation along BTK and the Middle corridor has greatly increased.”
“The Middle corridor, thanks to the Turkish port infrastructure, is in great demand and allows transporting goods from Asia to the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean countries,” Karaismailoglu said.
“The trade turnover between Europe and China is about $710 billion per year,” the Turkish minister said. “The countries through which the Middle Corridor passes will benefit greatly from the transportation of goods."
-----
Follow the author on Twitter: agdzhaev
