Erdoğan: "BTK railway line may be stretched up to Central Asia"

"Today, we have faced an international crisis over coronavirus outbreak, which have a negative impact on the trade between our countries," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at an Extraordinary Summit of Turkic Council held through video conferencing.

'We have to carry out practical solutions in fields such as transport, customs. We can stretch the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway line up to Central Asia. We try the BTK to carry 3,500 tonnes of load per day. I expect the member countries to simplify the visa issue for train drivers, as well as entrance fees and other issues,' he said.

BTK was launched on October 30, 2017. The railway line provides a connection between the railway networks of Asia and Europe. This is the shortest way not only among the three countries but also between Asia and Europe. BTK halves the time for cargo transportations.

The railway line simplifies the access of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan to Europe and world markets. The 504 km-part of the BTK, which is 846 km in length, passes through Azerbaijan, 263 km through Georgia, and 79 km through Turkey.

This route is planned to carry 5 million tonnes of cargo in the first stage, 17 million tonnes in the next steps and larger volumes in the following stages.