The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) allocated $588.2 million (as of Jan. 1, 2016) since the beginning of financing of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway’s construction, a message of SOFAZ said.

In accordance with the agreement signed between the governments of Azerbaijan and Georgia, the funds were transferred via the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) to Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC, which was created for the design, construction, rehabilitation, reconstruction and operation of the Marabda railway part - border with Turkey and the relevant infrastructure.

SOFAZ allocated $28.9 million for the implementation of the project in the fourth quarter of 2015, said the message.

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. It is expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2016.

The peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.