The new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, will be launched in late 2012, the head of the Azerbaijani Railways Company, Arif Askerov, said.
The company will purchase passenger trains from TALKO (Spain). It is the only company that produces trains that do not need to switch wheel gauge for the European rails.
Azerbaijan provided $775 million for construction of the Georgian section of the railway. Financing of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars rail line was ordered for the State Oil Fund by decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on February 21, 2007.
A new 105-km section will be built, 76 km of which will run through Turkey and 29 km through Georgia. Georgia will reconstruct the Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi section and increase capacity of freighting to 15 million tons annually. Akhalkalaki will have a wheel-switch facility.
The highest cap will be reached at 17 million tons. The first stage will have a capacity of 1 million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.
