BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 12. The throughput capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway is planned to be tripled by the end of 2025, Ketevan Kebuladze, Deputy Head of Export Promotion Department, Enterprise Georgia, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, Georgia, said at the presentation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) report “Monitoring Small and Medium Enterprises in Asia 2025” (ASM 2025) in Baku, Trend reports.
According to her, construction of the Anaklia deep-water port is continuing, and it is expected that in the first phase, it will add 600,000 TEU of capacity and receive its first ship by 2029.
“In addition to the physical connections we are developing, we are creating digital corridors and implementing a maritime ‘single window’ and port community systems. These initiatives transform corridors not only into a logistics route, but also into an information highway on a global level,” she said.
The BTK railway is approximately 850 kilometers long, more than 500 of which run through Azerbaijan. The BTK is the shortest and most reliable route connecting Europe and Asia, and its operation has contributed to increasing Azerbaijan's logistics capabilities within the East-West transport corridor.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars line has already become an important part of the Eurasian transport map and serves to ensure stability and security in the region.
In 2024, work was completed on the modernization of the BTK section in Georgia, which increased its capacity from 1 million tons to 5 million tons per year. After the modernization work was completed, freight transportation resumed on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway on May 20, 2024, and the first shipment was sent to Türkiye.
The modernized BTK line allows for the transportation of a significant portion of cargo shipped from China, Central Asia, and Asia in general in a westerly direction and back via the Middle Corridor through Azerbaijan.