Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu, in his statement to the AA correspondent, said that they have taken important measures to control the new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic, and that they are also working to continue trade.
Pointing out that the demand for railway transportation has increased significantly due to its high security, Karaismailoğlu stated that there has been a great increase in demand for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway line, especially in terms of foreign trade with Central Asia.
Karaismailoğlu reminded that in order to meet this demand, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that work has been initiated to transport an additional net 3 thousand 500 tons of cargo per day. Minister Karaismailoğlu said, “With the instructions of our President, we quickly completed the works that will increase the capacity of the BTK line in this difficult period. We have established and put into operation the container transfer system, which will provide an additional 3 thousand 500 tons of capacity increase to the BTK railway line, at the Canbaz Station on the Turkish side of the Turkey-Georgia border.” he said.
“The first train using the transfer system departed”
Karaismailoğlu stated that since the rail width of the lines belonging to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Russia is different from the rail width of Turkey and European countries, it is necessary to transfer wagons or change the wheel sets and continued as follows:
“We accelerated these transfers with the container transfer system we established on the Georgian border. Thus, we increased the daily net capacity up to 3,500 tons. Currently, our first train using the transfer system is 15 wagons loaded from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, carrying 1200 tons of minerals, agricultural products and agricultural products in 27 containers.” “It has set out to deliver ferro silicon raw materials to Mersin, Derince and Denizli.”
520 thousand tons of cargo were transported
Emphasizing that the BTK railway line reinforces its feature of being a bridge between Europe and Asia day by day, Karaismailoğlu said that the amount of cargo carried through the railway line is gradually increasing.
Stating that the railway line plays an important role in the trade between Turkey and friendly and brotherly countries Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and China, Karaismailoğlu said:
“So far, 240 thousand tons of export goods in 5 thousand 250 containers, 280 thousand tons of imported goods or transit cargo to Europe in 5 thousand 300 containers have been transported through this line.”
Minister Karaismailoğlu added that the developments reveal how important an investment the BTK railway line is.
