Although Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) was estimated to be launched in late June, according to latest statement of Turkey’s Minister of Transport Ahmet Arslan, the railway line will be put into service in August. Turkey almost finished its rail section, but the problem is on Georgian side. “Turkey has almost completed construction of the BTK railway on the country’s territory, but the problem is that a landslide occurred on the Georgian section of the railway,” the minister said.
BTK has a total length of 838.6 km and connects Turkish city Kars with Baku, in Azerbaijan and Tbilisi, in Georgia. On Turkey’s territory, the line has 79 km, of which 58 km accounts for the Kars province, where will be constructed a logistics center.
This project will effectively open a new rail-only corridor from the Caspian Sea to Europe via Turkey, ensuring freight movements from China, Asia, Central Asia to Europe. The initial capacity of 6.5 million tons of freight and one million passengers and within the next years, will reach to 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo.
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