Rehabilitation of Marabda-Kartsakhi railway line

Rehabilitation work on the 29 km long stretch of the Marabda –Tetritskaro railway line has been completed. Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, Ramaz Nikolaishvili, together with the Chairman of the OJSC Azer-Road-Service of Azerbaijan Ministry of Transport Javid Gurbanov, and the Director of the Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway Bidzina Bregadze, opened the newly rehabilitated railway and attended the testing of Diesel Locomotive, which was conducted on the new railway line. This railway line is part of the rehabilitation Marabda-Tetritskaro-Tsalka-Axalkalaki railway project, which is being implemented according to the international agreement that envisions a Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line between Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. The rehabilitation project is being implemented in three steps: The first step- the rehabilitation of the 29 km section of the Marabda-Tetritskaro railway line has been completed. The second phase includes the rehabilitation work on railway stations: The Marabda, Tsintskaro and Tetritskaro stations and their supporting buildings have been completed, 50 artificial buildings have been reconstructed and the contact masts have been changed. Two new iron-concrete railway bridges have also been built.

Ramaz Nikolaishvili and Javid Gurbanov will visit the Akhalkalaki site and view the construction of the new railway station which was designed by the German architect Urgen Meyer. They will also visit the rehabilitation sites in Turkey. The rehabilitation work is being implemented in continuous mode at the Axalkalaki-Kartsakhi 25km section. After finishing the rehabilitation project the renewed railway line will then be on par with international railway standards.

This rehabilitation project has great importance for Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey in the sphere of infrastructure and regional development. The new railway line will help to increase freight and will support the rapid transportation of freight from Asia to the Europe.