Georgy Arutunov is a local citizen of Akhalkalaki, near Georgia's Armenian border, but he doesn't know a great deal about the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway (BTK) currently under construction close to his hometown. 'I have heard about it, but I don't know whether it's being carried out or not.' About a dozen local residents have given me the same answer—they know next to nothing about the grandiose 'project of the century' as the BTK railway has been dubbed. According to the contract, 70% of workers hired to construct the railway are supposed to be Georgian citizens.
Marabda-Kartsakhi, the company responsible for construction, says that it is complying with all of the terms of the agreement. 'We employ specialists from Ukraine, Turkey and other countries, but in general, we recruit citizens of Georgia. Now the project employs about 600 people. When the road will go into operation, we will add another 1,000 employees,' said Levan Kankava, the Executive Director of Marabda-Kartsakhi Company.
BTK
BTK is a joint project of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and it aims to unite the railway systems of these three countries. Originally, the project was supposed to be completed by 2009, but the terms were breached. Then the completion date was moved to 2011, but that soon came and went. The deadline was then postponed several more times. The construction was finally restored after the Georgia's 2012 parliamentary elections, when, according to a company representative, Marabda-Kartsakhi underwent a management change.
