KARS-AKHALKALAKI: TO BE OR NOT TO BE?
The Messenger, Georgia
June 20 2006
The meeting of transport ministers from Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan,
slated for mid-June, was postponed until July at the request of
Georgia.
This was due to the decision of the US Congress to prohibit the
participation of US companies in the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway project.
The Armenian National Committee of America lobbied Congress in favour
of this decision.
US politicians think that ignoring Armenia’s interests will damage
US-Armenian relations. Congress is in compliance with Yerevan’s
position, arguing that new project is economically unjustified, because
a Kars-Guimri (Armenia)-Tbilisi-Baku railway already exists, but has
been out of use since the Karabakh conflict (due to Turkey closing
the border). Armenia wants to revive this route while Azerbaijan
considers it absolutely unacceptable until the Karabakh conflict is
settled in its favour.
The proposed Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway needs 98 km of new track to
be laid from Akhalkalaki to Kars; 27 km of which are in Georgian
territory. The project also envisages the rehabilitation of the
Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi route.
The project will cost approximately USD 350-450 million.
The project should have started this year. President Ilham Alyiev
of Azerbaijan made statements concerning the setting-up of an
international consortium to build the railway; and Azerbaijan and
Turkey have already accepted the financial liabilities for financing
the project.
The Georgian State Minister for Reforms Coordination, Kakha Bendukidze,
thinks that the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway route could be important
for Georgia, but he added that so far he had not seen any reliable
economic assessments proving the necessity and profitability of this
project. He considers the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway
as a "distant prospect."
However, there are some more optimistic opinions. Irakli Chogovadze,
the Minister of Economic Development, said if America refuses
to finance the project there are other countries and financial
institutions which will be willing to participate. He says negotiations
are already underway with Kazakhstan and China.
Chogovadze hopes this railway will eventually connect China with
Europe, via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The cargo this
will attract will make this a very attractive project for investors,
and as such the project is more than viable.
Construction will be carried out in two stages, firstly a single track
will be built, and once it has developed sufficient income work on
the second will begin-provided, of course, that the project goes ahead.