“BY THE EARLY 2009 WE WILL HAVE AZERBAIJAN LINKED BY THE RAILWAY TO GEORGIA AND TURKEY” - Musa Panakhov, Deputy Minister of Transport of Azerbaijan

 

 

Caspian Energy (CE): Mr Panahov, how would you assess the development of transport sector in Azerbaijan?

Musa Panahov, Deputy Minister of Transport of Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan’s transportation sector is one of most rapidly developing fields of national economy; taking in account its importance in our economy, chiefly in goods exchange among the countries, it is a crucial field both from the west to the east and from the north to the south.

Alongside, it provides for export and import transportations of the republic, transit of cargoes and passenger transportation within the country and abroad. The most important in Azerbaijan’s transportation sector development is national energy carriers running right to global markets and passage of transit cargoes from Asian countries to Europe and back again.

The transportation sector development is quite even in all its directions, including railway, marine, and motor, that count for almost 100% of cargo transportation. These kinds of transport have a high priority of development. Most transportations are performed using the Great Silk Road as known as TRACECA, from the West to the East, that is why we make the main stress on these routes.

So far, we perform the work on all sectors of our country’s transportation infrastructure as the priorities of our economic development; we shall give a boost to this sector in the conditions of global economy globalization and higher transportation routes competition. At the moment there is a serious competition in this respect and the transportation sector development is dominating in attraction of transit commodity flows.

Azerbaijan is currently implementing the projects on upgrade of its oil fleet; the country also upgrades dry cargo ship fleet to run container goods and dry cargos. Furthermore, we have developed the state program of railway transport development, whose approval will enable to raise railways throughput by developing infrastructure and upgrading engines. Alongside, we have worked out the project covering national highway development in order to ensure motor transportations safety and increase transit goods flow through our country. This project specifies concrete directions, roads and facilities to be reconstructed and upgraded.

 

CE: Which main issues shall be addressed in the nearest future under Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) project?

Musa Panahov: One of the serious aspects of transportation sector development is not to rest on existing transportation systems but to diversify transport links. At the initiative of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the convention was signed between Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia in the early February 2007 to establish new direct railway communication Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK). Furthermore, the bilateral agreement was signed between Georgia and Azerbaijan concerning the constructing, funding and designing the railway section running in Georgia. The total length of the new railway to connect the lines of Turkey and Georgia is 105 km, 76 km in Turkey and 29 km in Georgia. Feasibility studies and drawings have already been drawn up on the entire route. The railway construction contractor shall be identified to install railway lines both in Georgia and Turkey through the tender by the yearend 2007.

Thus, this year we are commencing the construction under Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. The expected amount of transportations within first 5 years after construction are 3MT of cargoes per annum, and in the future it will rise to 10MTa+. The commissioning of a railway tunnel under Bosporus Strait shall provide a direct connection between Trans-European and Trans-Asian railway lines. This project will boost TRACECA Project and provide safe, speedy and effective operation of railroads between the countries of Asia and Europe, as well as create favorable conditions to run cargoes from China and Far East via Central Asia and Caucasus towards Europe and back again. Therefore the project is both strategically and economically expedient.

 

CE: How do you think, can the high-speed railway project in Azerbaijan repay itself? Are you going to examine the offers of foreign partners other than Korea?

Musa Panahov: This is a very attractive project. The high-speed trains are running in 5 countries so far and I think it is very interesting for our region, if taking into account the passenger flow and distances within the country among the neighbor countries. At the moment we are studying this project. Since this is an expensive matter, it shall be studied involving experts of the countries with experience in this field and local specialists.

Korean experts have worked in Azerbaijan and they submitted their offers. This is the project connecting Baku, Ganja and Georgian border checkpoint, a total of almost 500km. The project feasibility, both technical and economical, is yet to be studied thoroughly. The feasibility study is already complete and it shows that it will be most expedient to commence the railway construction after 2010. For we shall account for purchasing ability (for purchase of tick3ets - editor) of the population. The project suggests two variants, average speed, up to 160 kph and high speed, up to 300 kph. And I think most passengers, in view of the project convenience, will be using this transport. Implementation of this project, drawing feasibility study and full construction, was scheduled for a period of 7 years . This is a big, sophisticated and responsible project.

 

CE: How much is already done on the construction and reconstruction of roads and bridges in Baku? Are there any more works to be performed in the future?

Musa Panahov: Baku city infrastructure development was the program approved by the Decree of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. In 2006 we laid 9 large bridges and flyovers. Two big bridges were put in operation by the yearend 2006 and 2 more facilities, one bridge and 230m long subsurface tunnel facilitating entry to Baku, were commissioned during 1Q2007. Thus, the main problems linked to entry to the city from the north and northwest have been solved so far.

It is also planned to build a tunnel at 20 January circle. Of nine large facilities four have been commissioned, flyovers at Karl Marx Square and 3rd Microdistrict will be put in operation in a few months, and first phases of another two flyovers, near Azizbekov subway station and in the beginning of Heydar Aliyev Avenue (in front of Excelsior Hotel) by the yearend 2007, in accordance with the program.

At the same time we are building underpasses to be put in operation by the end of the year. Certainly, what we do is not enough to solve all transportation problems in Baku. Due to the rise of living standard the quantity of cars in the city rose as well, last year this quantity grew by 80k and during the first half 2007 by over 34k. Year by year this quantity grows up and so there is still much to be done.

At the moment we are installing the first phase of the ring road across the area from Lokbatan to Shamakhinka (21.5km). The construction will be completed by the yearend 2008 and in the second phase we will build a 54km road to Hovsana.

Apart from that, we shall extend highways and repair those not used for a long time. Recently we opened a 36km highway between Darnagul Highway and Khirdalan circle; in general, we did and do much in Baku in a short run to enable vehicles of all kinds to get from one part of the city to another. We are trying to distribute this flow by directions and have fewer cars enter the center of the city.

We commenced the construction of a new highway to the airport. Extending the existing and laying a new parallel line to the airport with further access to other suburbs of Baku will help increase the road throughput in this direction more than in twice. Alongside we are working to upgrade the bus fleet. Today we have three contracts covering the delivery of urban buses from Korea, China and Turkey in order to replace small buses with big.

We signed a provisional agreement with Republic of Korea for delivery of 200 buses but the buses operability is a good question. The buses are also delivered from the People’s Republic of China.

Too, we are going to launch middle-size buses as the streets in the center are narrow and large-size traffic complicated. A part of them is already being delivered from Japan and Turkey. Existing passenger buses will be completely replaced. We are talking with some large car manufacturers in order to choose the best and most comfortable cars to use as cabs. Private companies are also engaged and they will be providing our people with transportation services. Alongside the import of new cars the payment system will be upgraded by means installation of counters (taximeters).

A big work is performed on the construction of main roads of the country. The 213km highway connecting Azerbaijan to Russia, 503km Azerbaijan-Georgia and 243km Azerbaijan-Iran highways are Azerbaijan’s core highways. These I category four-lane type highways will satisfy all international requirements.

The work in western direction (Georgia) has been performed for already three years and we are stage by stage commissioning new highways until the yearend 2008 when we complete the first stage and bring online the first two-lane part of this highway.

The construction of 243km long Alat-Astara highway has commenced. The work on the first 22km has begun so far. We are going to upgrade highways in all directions, both within North-South and West-East corridors. All these projects will be completed by the yearend 2010.

 

CE: Which new transportation corridors shall be the priority after GUAM Summit in Baku?

Musa Panahov: The growing globalization of trade and economic ties calls for the acceleration of the integration of Azerbaijan’s national transportation system with the international transportation system with its primary objective to develop international transportation corridors, harmonize regulatory, modernize transportation ties among the states of the region and ensure transportation safety. Extension of TRACECA transportation corridor as a model of regional cooperation is identifying priorities under extension of trans-European networks to neighboring countries. In this respect Azerbaijan is an important link connecting the region to neighbor countries through two main international corridors, Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) and North-South running via the republic. In this aspect TRACECA became one of the primary directions of the transportation strategy of countries of the region called to revive ancient historical traditions of the Great Silk Road.

The top priority of West-East transportation corridor is a new railway line, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars. Today this is the top priority of our transport policy as this project enables to create a new transport connection to Azerbaijan, extends the country’s capacity to use new transportation routes (western, northern, southern) more efficiently and creates big opportunities for our vendors and customers as well as reduces transportation costs. These are the top priority tasks we shall fulfill.

Certainly, we will also be working on North-South transportation corridor and we are expecting more constructive approach to proposed tasks.

Alongside, speaking of future trends and priorities, the strategic line is underlying the increase of competitiveness of the country’s transportation system and creation of the unified national transportation network, whose operation shall be built on the basis of economic balance and coordinated interface between various kinds of transport.

Thank you for the interview.