BTK railway is modern Silk Road - Erdogan

BAKU. KAZINFORM The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, which was built jointly with Azerbaijan, is a modern Silk Road, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the 6th Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States in Kyrgyzstan, Turkish media reported Sept. 3.

Erdogan noted that this is one of the most important transport projects that will contribute to the development of the region.

"Thanks to the joint project with Azerbaijan, uninterrupted transportation of goods from China to Europe became possible," Erdogan said.

The official opening ceremony of the BTK railway was held in Baku Oct. 30 last year. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement, Trend reports.

The railway's peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.