Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway construction temporarily suspended

Construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway’s Georgian segment has been suspended temporarily due to the weather conditions (heavy snow and frost), as the Deputy Director of Azerinshaat, Rusal Abasov, told journalists.

The company is a railway constructor and receives weather reports on a daily basis. Abasov told journalists that on 15 December 2008 it started snowing and a layer of snow more than a metre thick now covers the ground. Therefore any outdoor operations are impossible.

As the railway should satisfy world standards extra research must also be undertaken into local geological peculiarities. Abasov promised that the railway construction will restart in March.