Silk Road: News, Events, Articles

The basic network of the Caucasian corridor is made up of the railway line running across the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia and linking Baku, the port on the Caspian Sea, with ports of Batumi and Poti on the Black Sea coast. Already in the time of the Soviet Union this line was reputed as a well-equipped railroad possessing electrified tracks in some sections. The trunk-railway was capable of handling 40 pairs of trains per day.

Within the framework of TACIS Programme - TRASECA there were elaborated several projects on re-structuring and rehabilitation of tracks along the Europe-Caucasus-Asia line. Thus at Azerbaijani railway there were refitted and reconstructed two bridges and there were made major repairs to some tracks. In 1999 in the main Black Sea ports there were put into operation the railroad ferry terminals. In Batumi the construction was financed by non-state capital, while in Poti it was done under the TRASECA programme.

On the Caspian Sea one of the major transport junction on Europe-Caucasus-Asia line is the international port of Baku. It has several mechanized docks, oriented on treating the dry-cargo ships and tankers as well as servicing ferries and large-size containers. From Baku across the Caspian Sea most cargo is transported on ferries to the ports of Turkmenbashi and a young rapidly growing Kazakh port of Aktau.

In the west the Caucasian transport corridor also forks into different directions. Railway ferry crossing links the Georgian port of Poti with port of Ilyichovsk in the Ukraine and port of Varna in Bolgaria. Thus there was created the triple ferry crossing-Varna-Ilyichovsk-Poti/Batumi.

In future the ferry crossings will link the Georgian ports with ports of Romania, Turkey, Russia and other destinations.

The efficiency of the Caucasian corridor will considerably increase through handling the expressway container trains. The first expressway train following the route Baku-Poti was put into operation in 1996.

It is also possible to make the Trans Caucasian railway of a higher importance by introducing new branch lines. Thus implementation of the project aimed at construction of the railway line from Turkish town of Kars to Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, will contribute much to the success of the Trans Caucasian trunk railway. Introduction of a new railway section Kars - Akhalkalaki and reconstruction of the section Akhalkalaki - Marabd also serve this purpose. Georgia and Turkey alike consider this project to be extremely important.

Armenia is particularly interested in construction of a railway line from Zangezur located in the southern part of the country to Iran. Thus, through Yerevan-Megri-Duzal-Tebriz line, Armenia will be able to get access to Iranian railway network and further to the ports on the Persian Gulf coast as well as to the states of Central Asian region of the CIS.

Iran, for its part, is also rather interested in having its outlet to the Georgian ports via Armenian territories. Thus in 1996 Iran signed the agreement with Georgia on export-import cargo transit transportation.To bring a proper order to its own transport railways and highways became one of the most important tasks for Armenia. It was expected that by the end of 2004 all the major highways of Armenia would have been reconditioned, with the main attention being paid to the lines providing transit from Georgia to Iran.

Azerbaijan and Georgia too are involved in the up-grading of their highways. There has been put forward an idea of construction of Trans-Caucasian chargeable highway Tbilisi - Baku, which can make for considerable reduction of travel time from the Black Sea coast to the Caspian Sea coast.

The Caucasian corridor has all the chances for further development. The Caucasus is known to be rich in unique samples of ancient architecture, beautiful landscapes, peculiar folk traditions. All this inevitably attracts millions of travelers and makes the tours along the Great Silk Road more and more popular.

Silk Road History
Silk Road Articles and News
Silk Road GuideBooks
Silk Road Maps
Silk Road Tours
Great Silk Road and Unesco

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Email: travel@roxanatour.com

Telephone: +99890 176 98 83

Roxana Tour Co.
Usmon Nosir 128 bld 8
Tashkent,
Uzbekistan

Random Links: Silk Road Tours Tours along Silk Road Silk Road Tours