Kazakhstani shippers will gain additional opportunities to ship products to Turkey and Europe thanks to the opening of the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars (BTK) railway. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The railway is a key element of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). It provides direct transport connectivity between the rail networks of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, opening up additional opportunities for transporting Kazakhstani cargo across the Caspian Sea to Turkish and European markets.
The Ministry of Transport noted that the development of the BTK infrastructure will contribute to strengthening Kazakhstan's transit potential, increasing international traffic volumes, and improving the efficiency of supply chains across the Eurasian region.
The total length of the railway is 827 kilometers. The route has been operating in test mode since 2017. From May 2023 to May 2024, a large-scale infrastructure upgrade was carried out on this section.
Following the reconstruction, the capacity of the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway was increased fivefold – from 1 million to 5 million tons of freight per year.