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Georgia-Turkey rail tunnel rerouted

03 August 2009 14:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Viktoria Dementyeva â€“ APA. Despite some delays, construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Rail Link is planned for completion in 2012, said Bidzina Bregadze, Director of Marabda-Kartsahi Railway Ltd.

He noted that the project has a bit gone out of schedule.

â€œIn order to advance this work, we went to Azerbaijan. Recent happenings in Georgia have had a negative impact on the transfer of funds. Also, there appeared technical problems during the construction of a tunnel between Georgia and Turkey as part of the rail link. It turned out that the site for tunnel is a dangerous place, so we had to change the route,â€ he added.

The three countries agreed in February 2007 to build a rail line linking the Azerbaijani capital Baku, the Georgian capital Tbilisi and the Turkish city of Kars. Construction work commenced on November 21, 2007.

As per the agreement, Azerbaijan undertook to extend a $200mln loan to Georgiaâ€™s Marabda-Kartsakhi Railroad LLC for 25 years at 1% interest rate annually. The loan will be spent on construction of a 29km long railroad in Georgia, a ST-2 wheel base in Turkish-Georgian border and rehabilitation of old railway.

The project costs more than $600 million. Construction of railroads is slated for operation in late 2011.
A 76km long railway will be laid in Turkey as part of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Rail Link.