The Messenger, Georgia
Aug 8 2005

Baku: Kars-Akhalkalaki railway to be built by 2007
By M. Alkhazashvili

The Kars-Akhalkalaki railway project connecting Turkey, Georgia and
Azerbaijan via rails has been a long lasting topic for discussion,
but only recently became an issue of serious proposals.

Now the Azerbaijan Ministry of Transport has stated that
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway will be opened in a year and a
half and will cost USD 400 million, the paper Rezonansi reports.

Project feasibility studies will be ready by the end of the year and
Turkey has announced a tender on the studies. Within the framework of
the project Azeri, Georgian and Turkish transportation officials will
meet in Istanbul in August.

Already officials say that connecting Turkey’s railway with the South
Caucasus railway system will be profitable not only for Turkey,
Georgia and Azerbaijan, but also for the countries that could use the
line for transit. And despite the profitability of the line, the
construction of the small length of track (98 km, 68 in Turkey and 30
in Georgia) has been delayed for many years.

The main reason for this is the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the
fact that an operating line once existed between Turkey and Armenia.
A group of U.S. congressmen are arguing that ignoring this line would
be a major setback for the treatment of Armenia and for the peace
process.

As a result, they have proposed a bill titled South Caucasus
Integration and Open Railroads Act of 2005. The U.S. Congressmen who
submitted the bill, Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI), Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
and George Radanovich (R-CA), argue that no U.S. aid should be given
to the rail project precisely because it excludes Armenia from the
East-West corridor.

The stated goal of the bill (H.R. 3361) is “To prohibit United States
assistance to develop or promote any rail connections or
railway-related connections that traverse or connect Baku,
Azerbaijan; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Kars, Turkey, and that specifically
exclude cities in Armenia.”

Despite the censure by the American legislators, officials in Baku,
Tbilisi and Ankara appear unfazed. At present, the railway
construction is slated to be conducted in two rounds. First one track
will be built and later when the railway starts operations, a second
track will be constructed.

Georgian papers state that according to estimates over the first year
of operation, 10 million tons of cargo will be transported and later
the figure will rise to 50 million tons. It is also forecast that the
line could be used for oil shipping that is today is transported by
sea through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits.