By Ruslan Rehimov

BAKU, Azerbaijan

Turkey and Azerbaijan will jointly produce freight cars for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway (BTK), the Turkish transportation and infrastructure minister said on Wednesday.

"Turkey and Azerbaijan will set up a plant in Azerbaijan to produce freight cars for BTK railway," Mehmet Cahit Turhan told reporters after his meeting with Azerbaijan State Railways head Cavid Gurbanov.

"Work on the project is about to be completed. Factory sites were located for manufacturing. They will be produced immediately after establishing the plants," Turhan noted.

The BTK railway line is only providing freight shipment services, Tuhan said, adding that passenger transportation will start in the coming years.

He said not only Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia will benefit from the railway, but also other countries.

The 826-kilometer (513-mile) BTK railway project linking Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia began operation last year.