Present economic changes, of which the basis was laid by All-National Leader Heydar Aliyev, are nowadays successfully carried out by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. The country is actively involved both in international projects (Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, North-South) and in implementation of regional transport corridors.
Far-reaching changes
The work on renewal of the carriage and locomotive fleet, overhaul repair of railways, energy system, signaling, communication and other facilities is underway in accordance with the state program. Besides, operations on shift from direct to alternating current in the direction of Baku-Beyuk Kasik are being performed. Important steps are taken to upgrade technical facilities and fulfill other important tasks. The major objective of the state program is to increase a transit potential of Azerbaijan, service level in railway transport, reduce transport costs in passenger and cargo transportation, which in its turn will secure productive operation of the transport system.
To determine economic, legal and organizational framework of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, a draft law “About railroad transport of Azerbaijan” considering opinions and proposals of the Ministry of Justice was submitted to the Ministry of Transport. The given draft law was worked out within the framework of the “State program of Azerbaijan Railroad Transport development in 2010-2014”.
According to the agreement signed between VEST QAS Company and Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, 5 carriages of Express train were sent to Sazvzuduki plant of the Slovak Republic in February 2009 for overhaul reconditioning. Reconditioned carriages were delivered back to the republic on October 28, 2011. The service life of these carriages makes 28 years. In other words, they can operate until 2039 at a 160km/h speed. On November 24, 2011 President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visited Baku passenger station and inspected at 5 passenger trains reconditioned in Slovakia.
In general, a number of measures are planned to be taken in the country with the purpose to reconstruct the present carriage fleet. The repair of currently operating carriages is carried out. Thus, 85 passenger carriages were recently sent to the cities of Ukraine and Russian Federation for repair. After completion of repair, they were delivered back to the republic and put into operation on Baku-Tbilisi, Baku-Moscow, Baku-Kharkov, Baku-Agstafa-Gazah and Baku-Balakan lines.
Successful fulfillment of the state program is ongoing. Capital repair of a 370km long section of Baku-Boyuk Kasik road, which has been fully replaced with 800m long rails, is fully completed. The operations on overhaul repair are also ongoing.
Within the framework of fulfillment of the state program the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Azerbaijan and International Bank of Development and Reconstruction (member of the World Bank) signed a credit agreement in order to finance part of the “project on support of railway transport and trade”. The major objective of the project is to improve railway services in Azerbaijan along the entire Baku-Boyuk Kasik corridor, to strengthen competitiveness of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, its financial sustainability, operational-economical efficiency and potential.
Modernization of the industry
Corresponding procedures on acquisition of 50 new cargo locomotives, operating with alternating current, are ongoing within the framework of the World Bank’s project on transition of the traction system of Baku-Boyuk Kasik section to alternating current (25kV).
New maintenance-of-way facilities GSM 09 – 32, RM P 80, and USP – 2000 have been purchased from Austria for maintenance and repair of railways. A hangar has been built and commissioned in Bilajari workshop for repair of motor-driven rail transport, machines and mechanisms in order to maintain their operation in due manner.
Production and transportation of long rails (800m) at a rail-welding train has been commenced since February 22, 2012 in the town of Salyan. To ensure the fulfillment of Azerbaijan Republic President’s Order “About some measures on provision of e-services to state bodies” dated May 23, 2011 and Azerbaijan Republic Transport Minister’s order dated June 25, 2012, a working group, broadly engaged in determining new types of e-services and their introduction in Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, was created.
Cashless payment has been applied by means of POS terminals, installed at ticket counters, since March 1, 2012 for purchase of transportation tickets.
Reconstruction and improvement operations that Azerbaijan Railways CJSC conducts include every section of the railways.
An office building of Ganja station was commissioned after an overhaul repair on December 23, 2013. VIP room as well as children’s room were set at the station for ensuring comfort of passengers.
The second bridge across the Kur River (73rd km of Poylu-Salakhly section) was commissioned on July 26, 2014. Construction of the bridge was commissioned in 2008. The operations were completed in 2014. Full length of the bridge makes 208.44m.
Reconstruction of the reinforced bridge over the Valvalachay River (2508th km of Charkhy-Sarvan section) and steel bridge over the Araz River (98th km of Saatly-Bedjar section) has been fulfilled as well.
Transportations
As is known, the relative share of container transportation keeps constantly growing in international transportation. Attraction of container cargoes to the international transport corridor East-West favorably impacts development of our transportation system and will raise its competitiveness. For this purpose, Azerbaijan Railways CJSC and Georgian Railway JSC started negotiations to resume the operation of Baku-Poti container train. The operation of this train was halted in 1966. The negotiations ended up with the resuming of operation of Poti-Baku train. The first train consisting of 25 containers arrived at Keshla station on July 17, 2014. As a result of a number of reorganization operations aimed at reconstruction of the material-technical base of “Emergency Situations Train” LLC, new equipment, machines, mechanism and materials were purchased in order to prevent potential oil spills during transportation. These facilities were distributed between sections of Ganja, Bilajary, Hajigabul, Imishli, Yevlakh and Shabran. Administrative building of “Emergency Situations Train” LLC built at the production base has been commissioned.
According to President Ilham Aliyev’s order about preparation of the Concept of Development “Azerbaijan 2020: outlook for the future”, “Capital Construction and Technical Control” LLC has carried out an important work on implementation of projects, concerning the State Program, development of feasibility study and technical documentation as well as preparation of the railway development concept until 2020.
Obviously, execution of work envisaged in the State Program, will secure safe running for trains and raise the speed of their movement. All of is clearly formulated in the preamble of the state program: To fully satisfy the demand for railway transport and ensure integration of the railway of the country into the international transport system, it is necessary to create a more modern transport infrastructure, reduce transport costs per unit of cargo transportation, determine flexible tariff policy, increase transit potential of Azerbaijan, conduct institutional changes, develop perfect legislative base about the operation of the railway transport, train high-skilled human resources for the railway sector, ensuring their social protection.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is personally controlling all changes and reconstruction in the railway transport, and even finds time for watching them on spot. Thus, on November 24, 2011 he familiarized himself with passenger carriages at Baku railroad station, which were fully repair edin Slovakia by the order of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC. Paying an official visit to Fizuli region on December 15, 2012, he got acquainted with the condition of the passenger station which underwent full repair. Visiting Agdash region on May 1, 2014, he took part in the ceremony of laying of the foundation of the new building of Laki railway station. On October 18, 2014 he attended the ceremony of laying of the foundation of Stadler plant meant for production of wagons in the city of Ganja.
International corridor
As an active participant of all different international projects, Azerbaijan Railways CJSC attaches big importance to their execution. In this aspect, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad is a grandiose project of the 21st century, which shall become a bridge between tens of states. The work in this direction is underway at high speed. A 4.4km long tunnel, which is to link Georgia and Turkey, is currently under construction. Construction work in Turkey has been completed. The length of the Georgian section of the tunnel makes 2070m. The operations there are ongoing.
The result of this work was the commissioning of the first test train Akhalkalaki-Karzakhi (Turkish border) on December 26, 2014. The railroad is scheduled to be fully commissioned in 2015.
