Karaismailoglu said they had installed the system at Canbaz Station on the Turkish side of Turkish-Georgia border, adding that the increase in demand revealed the importance of the line.

Karaismailoglu emphasized that there was a great increase in demand for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, in the terms of foreign trade with Central Asia.

“The first train to use the transshipment system is on the way”

Stating that the track width on the lines are different from the ones in countries like Georgia, Azerbaijan or Russia and from those in Turkey and Europe thus a wagon transfer system is needed or the wheelsets of the trains have to be changed, Karaismailoğlu said: “We have accelerated the transfers in question with the container transfer system we have installed on the border of Georgia. Thus, we have increased the daily net capacity up to 3,500 tons. Currently, our first train using the transshipment system is on the way to take thousand 200 tons of mines, agricultural products and ferro silicon raw materials to Mersin, Derince and Denizli in 15 wagons and 27 containers loaded from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.”

“520 thousand tons of freight was carried on the railway line”

Emphasizing that the importance of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line as a bridge between Europe and Asia is increasing with each passing day, Karaismailoğlu added:

“The railway line plays an important role in the trade between Turkey and friendly and sister countries Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and China. To date, 240,000 tons of exported goods in 5,250 containers and 280,000 tons of imported goods or transit cargo to Europe in 5,300 containers have been transported on this line.” (ILKHA)