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BTK Railway Discussed At Azerbaijan-U.S. Business Forum As American Companies Eye Caspian Markets

By Mushvig Mehdiyev October 17, 2017

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Around 1.8 million passengers used railway services in Azerbaijan in January-September of 2017, according to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan / Sergey Veniavsky / Sputnik News

Business representatives from the United States gathered in Baku on Monday for the Azerbaijan-US Business Forum, ahead of the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway line, set to go online by the end of this month.

Witold Smidowski from the Oregon-based Greenbrier Companies, which designs, builds, and markets freight railcars, said the company is keen on exploring how it can make inroads into Azerbaijan’s transportation market.

“We’re here to explore the possibilities of [and] to learn more about the railway market of Azerbaijan,” Smidowski, who is the International Business Development Director for Greenbrier Europe, told Caspian News. “We have representatives in Ukraine, and we are active in Turkey. But this is the first time we are in Azerbaijan.”

The 826 km-long (513 mi) BTK railway will link South Caucasus neighbors Azerbaijan and Georgia with Turkey together for the first time since 1993, when the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi (KGT) line was shut down due to Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan, namely the occupation of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Overland freight transportation via railways has become a priority issue for Azerbaijan’s government, which is looking to capitalize on the opportunities emerging as railway corridors open up that better connect the East and West. China’s vast trade network of land and sea routes known as One Belt, One Road (OBOR), for example, will reduce overland freight time by half. Moving goods from China to Eastern Europe will take about 15 days, versus the current travel time of between 20 and 30 days.

Azerbaijan’s rail networks currently in operation allow for passengers to travel to Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine. Around 1.8 million passengers used railway services in Azerbaijan in January-September of 2017, according to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan. From January to September in 2017 railway routes of Azerbaijan transported 10.5 million tons of cargo, account for 6.3 percent of overall freight deliveries.

Azerbaijan’s commitment to a wider global transportation system came in 2005, when Baku joined the International North-South Transit Corridor (INSTC), an initiative by Russia, Iran and India, which aims to build a 7,200 km-long (4,500 mi) network of rail, maritime, and road routes within a single corridor stretching from India to Europe. Azerbaijan is home to 511 km (317.5 mi) of railway and 520 km (232 mi) of paved roads that form part of the INSTC and cut through the country vertically, beginning with Iran in the south and Russia to the north.

Initiated in 2000, more than 10 years before OBOR, the INSTC is seen by some as a competitor to it, as both are trying to reach European consumers in the most cost-efficient manner possible. New Delhi believes its geostrategic location allows for it to launch a new South-North trade corridor rather than join China’s East-West route.

“We’re really impressed with plans of the Azerbaijani government to develop the railway corridors that will help facilitate the shipment of freight from the east to west,” Smidowski told Caspian News.