The Baku-Akhalkalaki-Kars railway, the construction of which was ratified by the Georgian parliament on March 28, is expected to be fully operational in May 2010, announced the Director General of the Georgian Railways Irakly Ezugbaya at the meeting of the Georgian parliamentary committee for external relations, reported Today.az. The railway will connect London with Beijing and significantly supplement Georgia’s state budget, added Ezugbaya, according to the news source.

In January 2007, Baku and Tbilisi agreed that Azerbaijan would provide Georgia with a $220 million loan, repayable over 25 years with an annual interest rate of one percent for the construction of the Georgian part of the railway. Georgia will use transit revenues from the operation of the railway line to repay the loan. The overall cost of the Baku-Akhalkalaki-Kars project is estimated at $400 million and the capacity of the railroad is planned to reach 15 to 20 million tons in the future.

This information was originally published March 21 and March 28, 2007 (www.today.az; www.civil.ge).