On August 23, 2024, Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) and the Georgian railway company Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway announced the creation of a joint venture called BTKI Railways, this is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

This new joint venture will oversee the management of infrastructure and transportation on the Georgian section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) line, which spans 184 km. The primary goal of the new entity is to enhance the operation of the BTK corridor.

The collaborative efforts of Azerbaijan and Georgian railways, as well as their partners from Kazakhstan, are aimed at developing the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Middle Corridor, of which the BTK line is a part.

The first freight train traversed the BTK line in October 2017. At the end of 2022, the section of the line within Georgia was closed for infrastructure modernization and resumed operation in May 2024.

The work done jointly with ADY has increased the line’s capacity from 1 to 5 million tons per year. This has significantly reduced cargo delivery times and improved the competitiveness of the TITR as a whole.