Expansion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway: Georgia is approaching an increase in cargo traffic

At the end of this year, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway (BTK) will be expanded on the territory of Georgia, Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikail Jabbarov said.

The BTK railway, built on the basis of the Azerbaijani-Georgian-Turkish interstate agreement of 2007, since the beginning of implementation in 2008, the first cargo transportation was carried out on October 30, 2017.

"The work on the expansion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway in Georgia will be completed by the end of this year," Jabbarov said at the second. Baku Forum on Sustainable Development.

In September 2023, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, at a consultative meeting with the head of Central Asian states in Tajikistan, announced the development of BTK railways to meet the growing demand for cargo transportation. The President also noted that from 2024 the cargo traffic along this route will increase from 1 to 5 million tons.

The total length of the BTK is 826 km, and its modernized approach to the international transport region is observed and the conditions of trade and economic cooperation between different countries are observed.