ArmInfo. The situation in Azerbaijan and Armenia creates the need and prerequisites for the launch of a new railway corridor. This is how President of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania commented on the possibility of launching railway transit through Abkhazia.
"An alternative opportunity arises through Dagestan - there is a railway there. Abkhazia can be integrated into this story if we show readiness, if the Georgian side shows readiness. This corresponds to our interests," he said, Georgian media reported.
Bzhania said that recently a group of specialists from Russian Railways (Russian Railways holding) visited Abkhazia for the second time - they inspected the section along which the Ochamchira line of the railway runs - this infrastructure today is partially destroyed and in disrepair.
"All this can be corrected," he noted, adding that the Russian commission has begun calculations to find out how much it might cost to restore this section of the Georgian railway.
On January 11, 2021, Vladimir Putin met with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. Following the meeting, the parties decided to resume railway communication between the countries. It is assumed that the railway will pass through eastern Azerbaijan and will allow Armenia to launch direct trains to Russia for the first time since 1992, as well as gain access to Iran. Baku, in turn, after more than 30 years of blocking, will be able to establish communications with the exclave separated by Armenia- Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic - and gain access to Turkey.
On February 4 of the same year, extended committee hearings were held in the Parliament of Abkhazia, at which options were discussed that should be used to achieve success in this matter.
In January 2013, the then Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzini Ivanishvili considered it possible to resume operation of the Russian-Armenian railway, which passes through Abkhazia. Then Bidzina Ivanishvili stated that if all parties agreed, it would be possible to open the railway. According to research by the British non-governmental organization International Alert, the reconstruction of the Abkhazian railway along the Sochi-Sukhumi-Tbilisi-Yerevan route, which has been inactive since 1991, will cost $277.5 million, which will be recouped no earlier than in 100 years. $251 million is required to restore the 190- kilometer Abkhaz section of Psou-Inguri, while from Enguri to Zugdidi, the cost will be only $26.5 dollars. The road from Zugdidi to Tbilisi and then to Yerevan is operational and does not need to be repaired. It is noteworthy that according to the official conclusions of Abkhaz experts, this amount is $350-400 million, while their Georgian colleagues believe that this will require no more than $73 million.