Construction Of Turkey Section Of Baku - Tbilisi - Kars Railway To Start In July

ANKARA - The construction of the 76km long section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway project in Turkey will start in July.
Ministry of Transportation officials said on Thursday that the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of Turkey section of the BTK railway project would be held in June with the participation of presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
Georgia will build 29 km part of the railway from its border with Turkey to Akhalkalaki and will finish the renovation of an existing line that stretches from there to Tbilisi. The ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the part of the project in Georgia was held in November 2007.
Turkey has allocated 380 million YTL for BTK railway project, which is qualified as "iron silk road". The railway will connect Turkey with Azerbaijan and other Turkic republics in Central Asia.
The railway is expected to be operational in 2010 and carry about 30 million tons of freight a year.
(OZG-MS)