IT IS ENVISAGED RECONSTRUCTING TBILISI-YEREVAN RAILWAY

NOYAN TAPAN
NOVEMBER 18, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The European Union has financed
an important project, whose purpose is to assess the possibility of
reconstructing Tbilisi-Yerevan railway within the framework of TRACECA
(Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) Program.

The EU Armenia Office reports that the project on reconstruction of
Tbilisi-Yerevan railway aims to prepare a detailed assessment of the
perspective of repairing Tbilisi-Yerevan railway (also an alternative
railway between the indicated cities through the territory of
Azerbaijan), and this assessment should correspond to the international
standards for safe transportation of cargo and passengers.

The results of the possible reconstruction will be Armenia’s connection
to Batumi-Poti-Tbilisi TRACECA railway and a reduction in the passenger
transportation time, which is currently quite long due to speed limits
as a result of the unsatisfactory condition of railway lines. The
reconstruction will considerably improve the competitiveness of
the railway.

The main Tbilisi-Yerevan railway, which was launched in 1899 and
electrified in 1967, has a lot of problems related to its maintenance
and modernization and for that reason it cannot efficiently satisfy
the current and future transport needs. The alternative Yerevan-Tbilisi
railway, which passes through the territory of Azerbaijan, was launched
and electrified in 1964. However, in recent years only Yerevan-Dilijan
section of this railway has been operable.

After 12 months of its operation, the project has conducted three
main studies: examination of the possibility of reconstructing
Tbilisi-Yerevan railway; examination of the possibility of
reconstructing the Hrazdan-Ijevan section of the railway to Azerbaijan
(where traffic is partly blocked due to landslide); and examination of
the possibility of repairing the technical part of the main Georgian
railway.

Within the project, a preliminary assessment of the possibility of
opening a new Vanadzor-Fioletovo section was made, which would allow
reducing the current Tbilisi-Yerevan railway by 100 km.