Over the past five years five billion dollars from the state budget have been allocated towards the development of the transport sector in Azerbaijan, said the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Abid Sharifov at the opening of an international regional business forum "Strategic Partnership 1520: The Caucasian Region" on Tuesday, Trend reports.
According to Sharifov, the development of rail transport has great importance in Azerbaijan. According to him, along with the development of its own transport sector, Azerbaijan plays an active role in the development of such transport corridors as the Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA), North-South and East-West transport corridors.
At the moment there is construction work ongoing on the railroad between Baku,Tbilisi and Kars, aimed at connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The new railway is planned to be finished by 2012. The commissioning of a railway tunnel under the Bosphorus in Turkey, which will be used for cargo and passenger traffic between Asia and Europe, is expected by 2013.
