Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project revives “Silk Road”

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project has revived the historical "Silk Road", Turkish Minister of Transport, Shipping and Communications Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday. According to him, this is not the first global project being implemented in Turkey.

The Marmaray rail tunnel that connects the Eastern and European parts of Turkey was commissioned on October 29. The official opening ceremony was attended by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Minister of Transport, Shipping and Communications Binali Yildirim, Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as well as representatives of the governments of Afghanistan, Georgia, Bulgaria and Romania.

According to the statement, the length of the tunnel is 13.6 kilometres. Trains will depart every two minutes. The transport capacity for each direction will be about 1.2 million passengers per day.

The statement also said that this is the only project of its kind allowing the transport of both passengers and cargo through one tunnel. After commissioning the tunnel, the volume of rail transport in Istanbul will increase by 20 per cent, up to 28 % of the total transit volume.

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Marmaray project will be one of the most powerful projects in the region.

In addition, it was reported that Turkish Minister of Transport, Shipping and Communications Binali Yildirim said that the Marmaray tunnel will contribute to the development of not only Turkey, but neighboring countries.

According to him, the Marmaray project is a new rail Silk Road. The minister also stressed that this is not the first global project implemented in Turkey. He said besides the Marmaray tunnel, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project is one of the country's global projects (Trend)