GETTING ON THE RAILS

The large-scale project to upgrade the railways which has been going on for approximately two and half years now is creating new opportunities for transit freight transportation around the Caspian Sea. During the implementation of this project the closed joint-stock company "Azerbaijan Railways" has completed the basic construction of the 317-kilometre-long Baku-Boyuk-Kasik stretch of railway line and is today preparing to buy large amounts of rolling stock and set up its own carriage-building facilities in the country.

Radical modernisation

This year Azerbaijan and its partners in the transport corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) are planning to implement a number of trans-regional projects that will substantially transform the logistical situation on the Eurasian continent. The "Marmaray" [cross-Bosphorus ] railway tunnel was opened in Istanbul in October last year, and this has considerably increased the passenger- and freight-carrying capacity of the Southern-Europe-bound Turkish transport system. 

The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) transport corridor is to be completed in the second half of this year, and the Turkish railway network will connect up with the railways of the Southern Caucasus. In the second half of 2014 the first stage in the construction of the "Yeni Baki" international seaport facilities is to start. This will increase the freight flow from the Central Asian countries, first and foremost, by train ferry. The most profitable and shortest freight transportation route will thereby be provided from Europe to Asia; in particular, the transportation of all kinds of freight will begin along the Iron Silk Road. 

But, if the predicted freight capacity is to be readily achieved, the existing west-bound section of Azerbaijan's railway will need to be expanded. Strictly speaking, this is why the ultimate aim of all the modernisation projects planned by Azerbaijan Railways is to increase the volumes and speed of freight transportation, taking into account the possibilities provided by the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars mainline railway.

In June 2011 Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, approved the Ministry of Transport's State Programme for the Development of Azerbaijan's Railway Network in 2010-2014. The repair and upgrading of the west-bound railway lines has been financed both by the state, which has granted some 650m manats for the purpose, as well as through a 362-million-dollar loan from EximBank and also a 450-million-dollar loan from the World Bank. 

The first part of this large-scale project to upgrade the railway infrastructure has taken approximately two and a half years and was completed last December. The repair and upgrade of the 317-kilometre stretch of track and the 500-kilometre line connecting Baku to the Boyuk-Kasik crossing point on the Georgian frontier have been completed by the efforts of the  "Damiryolservis" department's specialised railway establishment and other contractors involved. 

The main aim of this modernisation has been achieved: the passenger trains will now be able to travel at a maximum speed of 140 kmph, and freight trains will be able to reach an average speed of 100-120 kmph. By comparison, up until quite recently the maximum speed of west-bound trains was no more than 80 kmph and generally it was markedly less than that. On the Baku-Boyuk Kasik stretch of track the line has been converted to a 25-kV alternating current electrification system and signalling and communication systems have been upgraded as well. The Yalama-Bilacari, Qoradiz-Imisli-Baku, Osmanli-Astara optical fibre cables are being laid for this purpose. In the very near future it is planned to set up a centralised computer-controlled freight and passenger journey system based on an automated communications and signalling.

The second phase of the state programme envisages the procurement of 12 multisystem electric locomotives and 100 passenger carriages. Three hundred new tankers for petroleum products and up to 100 freight cars are also to be purchased. If additional financing is found, the number of alternating current locomotives may be increased to fifty. Talks on the loans for purchases of the locomotives and carriages are being conducted with the German KfW development bank, the European Investment Bank and the Asia Development Bank. The state programme also envisages the setting up of a capital repairs base at the Bilacari locomotive depot, the reconstruction of the wagon depot at Alat and boosting the capacity of the Baku carriage-repair depot. 

Rail cars "Made in Azerbaijan"

Azerbaijan Railways management recently outlined the prospects for implementing yet another large-scale project to develop the country's railway network - the construction of a state-of-the-art passenger-carriage-building works in Ganca. Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov has said that it is planned to set up a joint enterprise with the Swiss Stadler Rail Group on the site of the Ganca carriage depot, where passenger carriages with couchettes and seating will be assembled and a capital repairs and servicing base created. 

The Stadler Rail Group, which has been operating since 1942 is a leading European builder of passenger carriages, special carriages, trams and manoeuvrable locomotives and exports its output to a fifth of the states in the world. Azerbaijan is planning to procure 30 passenger carriages from the well known Swiss firm this year. These top-class international passenger carriages are scheduled to be used for passenger transfers along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars corridor.

However, Azerbaijan itself will satisfy most of its passenger carriage requirements. At the present time, all the requisite projects have been drawn up for the erection of a carriage-building works in Ganca; the technical conditions have been created; the over-all exterior and interior design of the passenger carriages have been worked out. Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov has stated that the construction of the new works is scheduled to start in the middle of this year.

The setting up of its own carriage-building and repair works will provide considerable economic benefit, since Azerbaijan Railways are forced to spend tens of millions of dollars on the capital repairs of rolling stock abroad, in particular in Ukraine and Russia, because the country does not have the necessary infrastructure to do this. 

In time the government's outlays on the full-scale renewal of the country's railways will be fully recouped, taking into account the estimated growth in the volume of freight transportation along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars transport corridor. It is expected that in the initial stage as many as a million passengers and six to seven million tonnes of freight will be carried along the BTK annually. Subsequently, as transit traffic increases, the freight volume should rise to 17-20m tonnes of containers, dry, liquid and other forms of freight from Asia to Europe.