The official commissioning ceremony for the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars (BTK) railway line will take place on June 2 at the Akhalkalaki railway station in Georgia. Representatives from Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey will attend the event. Although the route has been operating in test mode since 2017, its official status as an international transport project is only now being formally established.
The total length of the railway is 827 km, 213 km of which runs through Georgian territory. Construction of the Georgian section was financed through a $775 million loan provided by Azerbaijan. It is anticipated that these funds will be repaid using revenues generated from the operation of the railway corridor.
Azerbaijan Railways CJSC (ADY) has announced the full completion of the modernization of the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars line, a project carried out from May 2023 to May 2024. The implementation of this project has increased the route’s throughput capacity fivefold – from 1 million to 5 million tons of cargo per year – a development expected to bolster the corridor’s role in international freight transport between Europe and Asia.