Commissioning of the Baku -Tbilisi-Kars postponed until the second half of 2015

Baku/25.02.14/Turan : There is no end to the construction of the Baku -Tbilisi-Kars railroad. Yesterday the Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov on the results of the 18th session of the Coordination Council with the participation of Deputy Prime Minister , Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili , said the test train reaches the border of Turkey until the end of this year. A full-scale operation of the railway will be possible to speak only in the second half of 2015.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Transport, at the meeting the parties discussed the progress of the construction of the railway on the way Marabda-Kartsakhi and other issues. According to Ziya Mammadov , the construction work carried out in Turkey accelerated pace. The main problems were associated with a tunnel length of 400 m on the territory of Georgia on the border with Turkey. However, here is the work accelerated , the minister said .
Baku-Tbilisi -Kars railway is intended to connect the three countries and ways to improve not only their transport and economic ties , but all the countries along the Europe -Caucasus-Asia .
Recall that the construction and renovation work on the territory of Georgia and Turkey have been conducted since 2007. Initially, the project cost was $ 422 million , of which $ 202 million had to be spent on construction of the Georgian section , and $ 220 million - on the Turkish section. Later the price rose to $ 750 million. As of January 1, 2014 to finance the SOFAR project sent 367.1 million manat, this year from the oil fund for this project is planned to allocate esche132 3 million manat.
It is expected that this will be transported by rail to 25 million tons of cargo per year .
Length of the railway station from Akhalkalaki (Georgia ) to the station Kars ( Turkey) is 98 km . In this 30 km of them passes through the Georgian territory , and the remaining 68 - to Turkish . The project updated some parts of the railroad in the area from Akhalkalaki to Tbilisi. - 08D-