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8 April 2017

By Orkhan Quluzade – Trend

Turkey and Azerbaijan are working to create a second railway corridor that would supplement the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, the Turkish media quoted Turkey’s Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication Ahmet Arslan as saying.

Arslan said that certain preparatory work has already been carried out in order to create the Kars-Igdir-Nakhchivan railway.

Construction of the Kars-Igdir-Nakhchivan railway will provide opportunities to unite Kars with Igdir, Nakhchivan and further with Iran and Pakistan’s Islamabad, he noted.

After the construction of the two railway corridors, the eastern part of Turkey will gain a status of railway hub, added the Turkish minister.

Touching upon the BTK railway’s construction, Arslan said that railway transportation via this route will start in late June.

Earlier, the minister noted that the opening ceremony of the BTK railway will be held in late June with the participation of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The BTK railway is being built on the basis of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey intergovernmental agreement. Peak capacity of the railway will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, it will serve one million passengers and transport 6.5 million tons of cargo.