Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey agree on major railway project
14.10.2006, 19.02

BAKU, October 14 (Itar-Tass) -Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey have
reached an agreement on key issues concerning the railway route from
Kare (Turkey)to Baku via Akhalkalalki (Georgia) and Tbilisi (Georgia).

`In the course of trilateral talks held in Baku yesterday, the drafts
of three important documents were considered: a framework agreement on
the project, the Georgian side’s obligations to allot land for the
constructionof the railway road, and a credit agreement between
Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, and on the whole an understanding was
reached,’ Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mamedov told journalists
on Saturday.

The three countries will finalise the document within a month and
resubmit them. `The main corrections will have to be made in the
credit agreement,’ the minister said, adding, `Each party has its own
project financing proposals.’

According to Mamedov, Turkey has no objections and is ready to start
implementing the project on its territory at the beginning of 2007.
`We are now working with the Georgian side to make sure it can start
building the railway road on its territory in the same period of
time,=80=9D Mamedov said.

He believes Georgia has an interest in this two-year project.

The new railway route is estimated at 422 million U.S. dollars. It
envisages the construction of a 105-kilometre road, including 29
kilometres in Georgia and 76 kilometres in Turkey, as well as the
modernisaiton of a 150-kilometre section of the Georgian railway road.

In the initial stage, the road will transport up to five million tones
of cargos a year. But Mamedov says the new road will be of interest
also to Kazakhstan and China, which are seeking to deliver their
cargos to Europe by the shortest route.