ANKARA: The customs control procedure on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will be simplified, Turkish Minister for Trade and Customs Cenap Ascı, on a visit to Baku, told media.
“We will mutually exchange the information on cargo,” he said. “The customs control results of one side will be recognized by other side. We do not plan to replace the carriages and unload the supplied goods under customs control procedure. This will significantly speed up the process of control.”
Ascı also discussed the passport control procedure of future passengers of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and said that it is possible to simplify this procedure in the future.
“Initially, the passport control procedure will be carried out at the border crossings,” he said.
“It will be held at an accelerated rate. In the future it is possible to conduct the passport control procedure in the arrival and departure points. But it is important for the relevant bodies of the two countries to agree on mutual recognition of the passport control results.”
Ascı said that first of all, it is necessary to simplify the cargo transportation via BTK as they are the main objective of the project.
“Thanks to this project we will be able to transport cargo from Asia to Europe and vice versa,” he said. “Therefore, it is important to simplify the customs procedures. But we will take measures to simplify the passport control procedures for passengers.”
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.
The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) finances the project in accordance with the Azerbaijani president’s decree ‘On the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project activities’ dated February 21, 2007. SOFAZ has allocated two loans totaling $775 million for the construction of the Georgian section.
A new 105-kilometer branch of the railroad is being constructed as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. In addition, the railway’s Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi section is under reconstruction in Georgia that will increase its capacity to 15 million metric tons of cargo per year. A depot is under construction in Akhalkalaki for the transition of trains from the existing tracks in Georgia to the European ones.
The peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million metric tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be equal to one million passengers and 6.5 million metric tons of cargo.
