Türkiye has officially started construction works for the Kars-Iğdır-Aralık-Dilucu railway line, a 224-kilometre project that will link up to the future Zangezur Corridor. The project, valued at 2,4 billion euros, includes a long list of new infrastructural additions to the region: five stations, five tunnels, 19 cut-and-cover tunnels, 10 bridges, three viaducts, 144 underpasses, 27 overpasses and 480 culverts.
Once completed, the Kars-Dilucu railway will consist of an electrified double-track line with a capacity of 15 million tonnes of freight and 5,5 million passengers per year.
According to infrastructure manager Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, the new railway aims to strengthen economic cooperation between Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Armenia, stimulate the normalisation of diplomatic relations in the South Caucasus, and boost the strategic role of the Middle Corridor.
The Kars-Dilucu railway would enable continuous rail freight traffic from Azerbaijan to Türkiye along an entirely new route. Simultaneously, it would give the Middle Corridor a second path through the Caucasus. Currently, the only possible rail route to cross the Caucasus for Asia-Europe trade flows runs through Georgia, namely the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars line.
The railway will also expand Türkiye’s domestic rail capacity, connecting production centres in eastern Anatolia with international markets, says the Turkish infrastructure ministry. Kars is expected to become the “steel gate” of the corridor.