Eastern Partnership Transport Panel

Blog » 2008 – Azerbaijan, Rail project, Upgrade of railway on the East - West corridor

2008 – Azerbaijan, Rail project, Upgrade of railway on the East - West corridor

Created Aug 22 2017, 5:59 PM by Leszek Tymoteusz Zemke
  • Azerbaijan - projects

2008 – Azerbaijan, Upgrade of railway on the East - West corridor

2013 - Map, Azerbaijan, Upgrade of railway on the East - West corridor.png

Rail Project - Upgrade focuses on the railway infrastructure between Baku and Boyuk-Kasik, which is part of the Baku - Tbilisi - Kars railway.

 

Demand estimation from IDEA II-EaP transport model year 2030
  • Freight: 110.000 tonnes/day
  • Passengers: 10.000 pax/day
Technical description

The upgrade of railway on the East - West corridor is a component of the "Rail trade and transport facilitation" project currently being funded by the World Bank. The project has 4 components:

  • Component I: The Rehabilitation of the East-West ainline component would include track, signaling and power supply rehabilitation along the East-West corridor. It would rehabilitate about 317km of mainline track currently in poor condition. The investment would remove the most critical speed restrictions and allow ADY to handle existing and potential traffic at up to 100 km/hour for passenger trains and 80 km/hour for freight trains without significant track delays on those 317 km. It would finance the conversion of the power supply on the East-West corridor to 27,5 kV as well as new power stations, catenary and the related upgrade in signaling equipment. This component includes the technical services required to design and supervise the above investments.
  • Component II: The New Mainline Locomotives component would finance about 40 new mainline electric locomotives to operate on the East-West corridor.
  • Component III: The Modernization component would include: support for the full implementation of IFRS accounting; (ii) provision of Advisory services to ADY to implement its modernization program and; (iii) provision of equipment to ADY to improve its oil spill prevention and response capacity.
  • Component IV: The Project Implementation component would provide training and consultant services to the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) for procurement, financial management, financial audit and monitoring as well as on the equipment required for project implementation.
Investment amount

Total project cost is approx 1.5 Billion USD

  • Component I - Rehabilitation of Eeast-West railway corridor:  927.70 mln USD
  • Component II - Locomotives: 334.00 mln USD
  • Component III - Modernization: 27.00 mln USD
  • Component VI - Project Implementation 7.60 mln USD

Implementation schedule

Project closing date is December 31, 2017.

 

Status

The implementation of the power conversion and signaling is progressing. The power conversion works are advancing with construction of eight AC traction power substations finalized and four remaining under construction and catenary works and poles replacement advancing at Ganja-Boyuk Kesik section. The signaling contractor has finalized the conceptual design followed by completed cabling works and signaling premises rehabilitated at Ganja-Boyuk Kesik section.

 

Though the status of physical rehabilitation of existing infrastructure is satisfying, there is an urgent need to align the schedule of delivery of locomotives with on-going power conversion and signaling contracts and most important to accelerate on-going institutional modernization within the sector and ADY to ensure that massive capital investments into the sector remain sustainable.

 

The World Bank has agreed with Government that the progress with Reform of the Railway Administration should continue with a focus on the development of a business plan, new financial management and asset management systems, and introduction of sector performance benchmarking. Based on above, the project development objective (PDO) continues to be achievable within the project closing date of December 31, 2017.

Expected impacts on transport, environment, social, other

Securing optimal track conditions and provision of all services will assure passengers' convenience, station automation, etc. The project is expected to support the development of services by enabling the railway to attract growing transit business to Azerbaijan. While such services remain related to the regional oil industry, they provide Azerbaijan with an opportunity to capitalize on its location by offering value added services for oil and oil products from neighboring countries. This will benefit not only the railway, but also other logistics businesses (port services, storage) that provide services for transit goods.

Source of funding
Azerbaijan Government, World Bank
References

 

Database of active projects in Azerbaijan

 

More:

EaP Homepage  Agreements  Country fiches  e-Library of documents  Projects
Road Safety Transport Indicators