Baku Passenger Station returns to service after major overhaul
Azerbaijan Railways with honorable 137-year long history of passenger service has re-opened the doors of Baku Passenger Station after major overhaul.
Azerbaijan Railways with honorable 137-year long history of passenger service has reopened the doors of Baku Passenger Station after major overhaul.
President Ilham Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva attended the opening of the newly renovated station building on February 10.
The Mauritanian-style building constructed in 1884 served as the first passenger service station, while later its area was extended by a new building constructed in 1977.
The building accommodates administrative rooms, modern commercial and catering facilities, waiting rooms, mother-and-child rooms and cloakrooms. The station provides free Wi-Fi for passengers. New elevators are in service of passengers and persons with disabilities.
“ASAN kommunal” No.2, the public service for providing of public utilities, operates in the second floor of the building. This center offers its services to all citizens, regardless of their place of residence, including all passengers who use the station.
The head of state and his spouse viewed train stops in the Railway Platform.
They visited an administrative building of Azerbaijan Railways, which covers a total area of 30,000 square meters.
Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Javid Gurbanov informed the head of state and his spouse that the building, constructed in 1956, has a 280-seat auditorium. All administrative rooms are supplied with the necessary equipment.
The construction of the first railway in Azerbaijan and its further development are directly related to oil transportation. The first railway line in Azerbaijan was laid in 1878 and opened in 1880 in the suburbs outside Baku.
Due to its geographical location at the crossroads of major international transport corridors, Azerbaijan and its transport communications successfully cope with the large volumes of transit and export-import operations for many years.
Influential foreign companies actively cooperate with Azerbaijan Railways.
The Asian Development Bank may soon provide support the agency by issuing a credit worth some $200 million to Azerbaijan within its Railway Sector Development Program.
The proposed program is deemed to be a government priority and a part of the Azerbaijan State Program for the Development of Railways 2016-2020. The program fits with ADB's Midterm Review of Strategy 2020 and 2010 Sustainable Transport Initiative.
Azerbaijan Railways is involved in a number of giant international projects, including North-South Transport Corridor, Trans-Caspian intermodal transport route and Baku-Tbilisi –Kars railway project (BTK).
The International North-South Transport Corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia, serving as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. The corridor is planned to transport 6 million tons of cargo per year at the initial stage and 15-20 million tons of cargo in the future.
The Trans-Caspian international transport route, which is designed to provide transport connections between the East and West of Eurasia, runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then to Europe via Turkey and Ukraine. The route was launched with the establishment of its Coordinating Committee in October 2013. The first test container train from China arrived at the Baku International Sea Trade Port on August 3, 2015.
Being constructed under a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement, BTK is expected to expand multimodal transportation opportunities, ensure the growth of passenger and freight transportation and boost the transit potential of the regional countries.