TURKEY: Infrastructure manager TCDD has secured US$2·8bn in external financing for the development of the planned Kars – Iğdır – Aralık – Dilucu line which would extend its network to the border of Azerbaijan’s Naxçıvan exclave.
The ‘green’ financing package is led by Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, with Sweden’s EKN Export Credit Agency and the OeKB export credit agency of Austria.
According to Turkey’s 2025 investment programme, the 224 km double track electrified line is expected to cost TL139·5bn, of which TL103·4bn would be sourced as external credit.
The project was first listed for investment in 2022, with an anticipated completion date of 2029, but the only budget allocation prior to 2025 was TL1·31bn for consultancy work. For 2025 the project has an allocation of TL2·47bn with TL2·03bn from external credit, in line with the sum required to call tenders for the project.
No announcement has been made on when the line is expected to be open.
Zangezur Corridor
The line could eventually form part of the long mooted Zangezur Corridor, which would connect Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea ports of Baku and Lankaran with Armenia and Naxçıvan, and then with Turkey’s rail network and by extension the European network.
This would form a new section of the Middle Corridor freight route between China and Europe, relieving pressure on the Baku – Tbilisi – Kars route which also serves Georgia and Turkey’s Black Sea ports.
The Zangezur Corridor would involve rebuilding and upgrading a single track line running from Imişli in Azerbaijan, parallel with the Iranian border west through Armenia and Naxçıvan terminating close to the border with Turkey.
The bulk of the line through Azerbaijan and its Naxçıvan exclave is operational. The section through Armenia is isolated from the rest of Armenia’s rail network and is believed to be derelict.
The main stumbling block for development of the Zangezur Corridor has been the state of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Armed conflicts in 2020 and 2023 saw areas which had been under Armenian control returned to Azerbaijani control, with preliminary peace talks having resulted in an informal agreement to develop the Zangezur transport corridor. Long stalled talks over a formal peace settlement allowing for a restoration of normal political and economic relations were recently restarted in Abu Dhabi.
Separately, Turkish and Armenian officials have been holding preliminary meetings aimed at discussing possible joint projects in transport and energy.
