Azerbaijan accelerates construction of railway to Zangezur Corridor
Azerbaijan Intensifies Work on Railway to Connect with Nakhchivan
Following the declaration signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia after the Second Karabakh War in November 2020, an agreement was reached to establish transportation connections between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan through a land and railway route. In the latest meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held on May 25, it was decided that deputy prime ministers from the three countries would discuss technical issues to implement the transportation connections.
Before the meeting, the Azerbaijani government inspected the railway network in Azerbaijan extending to the Zangezur Corridor, where Azerbaijan State Railways is currently constructing the Horadiz-Ağbend line from the Fuzuli province to the Armenian border and also the town of Ağbend in Zangilan province. Turkish companies are actively involved in the line’s construction, which spans 110.4 kilometers, has 9 stations, and has 469 art structures such as bridges, vehicle passages, tunnels, and drainage pipes.
The Azerbaijani government has reported that 78 percent of the design and 38 percent of the construction works on the Horadiz-Ağbend line have been completed, and 64 kilometers of rails have been installed along with the side roads. The area spanning 30 meters on both sides of the line has been cleared of mines laid by Armenians during the occupation, which caused some difficulties in the rail line’s construction due to the hazardous terrain. Nevertheless, the Azerbaijani government has expressed optimism that the line will be completed in the first half of 2024, which would also eliminate a significant obstacle to the uninterrupted land and railway communication between Turkey and Russia via Azerbaijan once all projects are completed.
The Azerbaijan Railways spokesperson, Senuber Nezerova, has reported that the Horadiz-Ağbend line features Azerbaijan’s longest railway bridge, a 13-span 418-meter bridge that made history as the longest railway bridge in Azerbaijan.
Turkey and Azerbaijan have an ongoing railway line project to connect Kars to Nakhchivan. Moreover, a new 166-kilometer railway line will be built from Horadiz to Ordubad in Nakhchivan, as some parts of the existing railway line from Horadiz to the Armenian border were destroyed during the Armenian occupation, and some parts were flooded by the dam. The construction of the 43-kilometer section of the line, which will pass from the Armenian part of the line through the Zangezur region, will begin after a final agreement between the two countries is reached. The 158-kilometer line from Ordubad to the Velidağ Station located in the north of Nakhchivan, close to Turkey, Armenia, and Iran, will be extensively repaired, and the line, which ends in Velidağ, will be extended 14 kilometers up to the Armenian border. Once all these projects are realized, a new transportation connection will emerge between Turkey and Azerbaijan, providing uninterrupted land and railway communication between Turkey and Russia via Azerbaijan, boosting trade and tourism between the countries.
