Azerbaijan, located at the crossroads of East-West and North-South corridors, has been developing new transportation and transit routes. Commissioning of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad and the railway tunnel under the Bosporus channel (Marmara project) in Turkey will provide the shortest way connecting Trans-European and Trans-Asian railroads, transporting passengers, cargoes across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey as well as increase the transit potential of the region. 

Beyond the region 

“Azerbaijan is playing an important role in transport security at present. Completion of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad construction will change the transport map of the region, mainland and continents”, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said while addressing the 5th convention of New Azerbaijan Party on June 7, 2013 in Baku. 

Speaking at the governmental session dedicated to the outcomes of social-economic development in the first quarter of 2013, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that “implementation of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad project is the historical event”. 

Construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad is currently ongoing. “We expected to complete the project in 2013. It may probably continue during the coming year as well. But in general, I may say that no problems are faced in course of its implementation. The major project related work will have been done by the end of this year. This project is being realized by the initiative of Azerbaijan. We lent big political support to this project and covered most of the expenses. But now, we are witnessing that this project has gone beyond the region and those who opposed it in previous years are supporting it now”, the head of Azerbaijan emphasized. 

“Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project plays an important role in increase of transit opportunities of the country as well as development of regional cooperation”, Ziya Mammadov, Minister of Transport of Azerbaijan, says in his exclusive interview with Caspian Energy. According to him, construction of the railroad to the length of 110km within the framework of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project will enable to connect the networks of Trans-European and Trans-Asian railways. 

Operations on Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project will be completed fully in the second half of 2013, Minister of Transport of Azerbaijan says. According to him, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Russia and countries of Europe will be able to enjoy the advantages of the new corridor. 

In order to increase the traffic speed of transport means heading from Baku toward the Georgian border, ensure modernization of auto and railroads on the basis of advanced technologies it is planned to construct a new international commercial seaport and create an international logistics center in Alyat settlement where the two corridors are to intersect. There are also plans to acquire ferries designed for 52 train cars in order to eliminate physical obstacles and facilitate customs procedures by using single window principle as well as commission 6 international airports undergone reconstruction in the country. 

Construction operations are continued rapidly. The upper structure of the new road has been built on Akhalkalaki-Turkish border section. Construction of artificial structures, road beds, railroad stations in Akhalkalaki and Kartsakhi, a bridge to the length of 150 meters on a 101-130km section of the road, a tunnel to the length of 4.2km on the Turkish-Georgian border, the work on rehabilitation and reconstruction on Marabda-Akhalkalaki section to the length of 153 km is ongoing in this area. A point aimed at directing trains from the Georgian toward the European rail track is planned to be built in Akhalkalaki. 

During the 5th session of the three-sided council for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad project held in March 2013 the parties agreed to speed up the construction work within the framework of the mentioned project. “The first test train is expected to run along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad late in 2013”, Turkish Minister of Transport Binali Yildirim said at the meeting.  The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad will become a globally important project after the opening of the railroad tunnel Marmara under the Bosporus which is to connect the Asian part of Istanbul with the European part. 

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul drew attention to the implementation of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) during the meeting held with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili on April 11. In the meantime, President of Turkey reminded that soon implementation of Marmara project would enable to set direct railway traffic from China towards London. A.Gul added that BTK project is of strategic character in this context and will enable to restore traditional trade relationships between the West and the East. “BTK is a modern steel Silk Way and shall substitute the missing section of so called “Central corridor”, A.Gul noted. 

Later, Tbilisi hosted (April 17, 2013) the session of the joint Georgian-Turkish Commission for construction of the railroad tunnel for Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad project. It was stressed at the session that Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project had reached a new stage for direct construction of the tunnel which shall connect Georgia and Turkey is beginning. The commission participants inspected construction work right at the site (Samzhkhe-Zhvakheti). 

The highest carrying capacity of the corridor will total 17 mln tons of cargo. This figure will total 1 mln passengers and 6.5 mln tons of cargoes at the initial stage. 

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad is being constructed on basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish interstate agreements. Azerbaijan has extended the credit worth $775 million on construction of the section. The State Oil Fund is funding this project according to the Decree of the President of Azerbaijan “On implementation of activities for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project” from February 21, 2007. Since the very start of funding this project to  January 1, 2013 the amount of allocated funds made $431.3 million.

Now Azerbaijan Railways CJSC is considering the offers on acquisition of passenger cars. Opening of the new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will require ensuring transition of the railway track in the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia to a narrower track in the territory of Turkey, which conforms to the European standards. Required are cars with a mechanism that enables making this transition. In this regard at present the CJSC is considering the possibility to purchase passenger cars manufactured in Switzerland. The new railway also envisages purchase of freight cars.

History of development 

The talks on the new railway project Baku-Tbilisi-Kars were commissioned on July 26-29, 1993 in the city of Ankara at the meeting of the joint transport commission between Turkey and Georgia. On July 20-21, 2002 Istanbul hosted the meeting of Ministers of Transport of Turkey and Georgia where the parties signed the protocol on implementation of this project, which envisaged performing preparatory work. During the official visit to Georgia on June 14, 2004 President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the joint press conference with President Mikheil Saakashvili expressed support to construction of a railway from Georgia to Turkey and showed readiness of Azerbaijan to get involved in this project.

At the meeting dedicated to development of transport communications Azerbaijan-Turkey and negotiations on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project, held on August 2-5, 2004 in Ankara, the parties agreed, first of all, to work out a project on implementation and coordination of engineering survey.

At the Conference of the Ministers of Transport held on November 14, 2004 in Baku at the initiative of the European Commission, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia signed the joint statement on importance and regional nature of the project.

The agreement on creation of a joint workgroup was reached on December 28, 2004.

The important document was signed on May 25, 2005 at the opening ceremony of the Azerbaijani section of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export pipeline. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and President of Turkey Ahmet Necdet Sezer signed the Declaration on Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Connecting Railway Project. The last option of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project was discussed at the session of the Ministers of Transport of the participating states on January 12, 2007 in Tbilisi. At this meeting, the Minister of Transport of Azerbaijan Ziya Mammadov and the Minister of Economic Development of Georgia George Arveladze discussed economic and technical problems on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad construction. Signing of two documents was the result of the talks.

Signing of the agreement for a launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project construction has become a logical completion of the project-related negotiations. On February 7, 2007 the building of the Parliament of Georgia hosted the trilateral meeting of Ilham Aliyev, Mikheil Saakashvili and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “The Agreement on a new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway track”, “The Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of Georgia on the Principles and Terms of Financing, Engineering, Construction, Rehabilitation-Reconstruction and Operation of the Marabda-Turkish Border  (Karksakhi) Railway Section Within the Frames of Implementation of the New Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway”, “The Credit Agreement on Financing Terms of the Marabda-Turkish Border Railway Section” were signed on the same day.

On February 21, 2007 President of Azerbaijan signed the executive order about activities on implementation of the new railway track, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars. Under the Framework Agreement on Implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway Project, Azerbaijan has provided Georgia with a credit worth $200 million dollars with the interest rate of 1% per year for 25 years on project implementation. Several meetings regarding the implementation of this track have been held in the last period.

New window to Europe 

Marmara Project Director Haluk Ibrahim Ozmen said the first trip via the railway tunnel connecting the European and Asian parts of Istanbul would take place on August 1, this year, My-Antalya reports. The tunnel is to be commissioned in October. “The considerable part of construction works has been already performed, including rail-laying work”, Ozmen said.  Besides, in production there are more than thirty cars. 

The Ministry of Transport of Turkey says the total length of the railway track connecting Halkali station (several kilometers westward from Ataturk airport) and the city of Gebze (in the eastern part of the Sea of Marmara) will comprise 76 km. Here, more than 13 km will account for a tunnel through the Bosporus.

Once put into permanent operation, the tunnel will raise the volume of transport operations in Istanbul by 28%. The project envisages construction of three new metro stations and reconstruction of 37 stations. The project shall spend $6.5 billion.

In the future completion of the Marmara Project is to ensure connection with Europe through the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.

Eastern market 

Turkmenistan has already showed interest to the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars transport corridor as stated in the text of the declaration signed on June 1, 2013 by President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of Turkey Abdullah Gul. At the end of the meeting the heads of two states adopted the joint declaration where they confirmed their intentions to continue strengthening long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

Stressing the significance of establishing a nonstop transport connection between the two countries, the presidents focused their attention on importance of Turkmenistan’s involvement in the Central Corridor, which is to connect Central Asia with Europe through the Caspian by means of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. In this relation the parties stated their readiness to facilitate the cooperation in the field of transport communications.

Kazakhstan seems to see a “special potential” in completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project. The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Akhmetov states this. He believes this railway will significantly facilitate transport operations towards Europe.

“The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will come on stream next year and connect us with Turkey. We will be able to supply Europe with freights and products through Turkey”, S. Akhmetov told Georgian journalists after the meeting with Georgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Kakha Kaladze in Astana.

On May 25 Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia George Kvirikashvili, who was visiting Azerbaijan, specified the position of his country on implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. He said that “nothing can prevent” its implementation. George Kvirikashvili called the project “strategic” and “one of the most important” for Georgia. According to him, “technical matters” that used to raise doubts of Tbilisi earlier have been already solved and “no problems threaten implementation of this project now”.

A little earlier, on March 7, 2013, Javid Gurbanov, Head of Azeryolservis OJSC, received the Afghan delegation chaired by Khan Jan Alokozay. According to company’s statement, the issues discussed at the meeting covered Afghanistan’s involvement in the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project. And already on April 24, Georgian Foreign Minister, Maya Pandzhikidze at the meeting of NATO Ministers said that Georgia was ready to provide NATO with the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad for transportation of freights from Afghanistan. 

In late 2012 Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey agreed to introduce a single tariff for transportation of freights within the frames of the Silk Wind Project.

“Application of a single through fare is one of key points for establishment of a competitive route. Besides other organizational matters, the key objective of the workgroups on project’s implementation is to work out issues of defining coordinated tariffs along with common parameters of the route enabling to ensure transparency of the tariff policy for establishing a confidential dialogue with business and provide corresponding advertizing of the train for potential customers”, the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Kazakhstan said on November 22.

According to this statement, proposed measures on simplification of customs registration procedures for the Silk Wind train were already discussed in October, 2012 in Azerbaijan during the first meeting of the heads of customs services of the Turkic-speaking states. The commissioning of the Silk Wind Project will become possible after construction and reconstruction operations of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad have been completed.

The Silk Wind multimodal block-train is expected to sharply accelerate conveyance of freights from China to Europe. The total length of the route is 4,192 km with the estimated run-time of 12 days. The project envisages involving new infrastructure facilities: Jezkazgan-Beyneu railway (Kazakhstan), International Sea Trade Port in Alat (Azerbaijan), Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey) and Marmara Tunnel Line Project (Turkey). Silk Wind will draw freight traffic to the TRACECA transport corridor and simplify administrative customs and boundary procedures, which in general will enable to expand the trade and economic cooperation between the countries across the region.

In turn, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have also agreed to use their transport and transit potential in the China-Caucasus-Turkey Corridor and use the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route for transit operations. In the joint statement of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov announced in late 2012 they underscored “how important it was to implement the Navoi-Turkmenbashi-Baku-Tbilisi-Kars transport project, which would provide a wide entry into the international markets”, the website of the Central Asian news service ca-news.org reports. The document was signed after the negotiations hosted on October 2, 2012 during Islam Karimov's visit to Turkmenistan.

According to different researches, Russia might also use the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route. In this case Russia will be able to accept cargos through Baku from different states, from China to European countries. Thus, the circle of opportunities for Baku-Tbilisi-Kars will keep on expanding and the process of transformation of the ancient Silk Road into the Silk Railroad is going to become a reality.