Ferry from Russia delivers corn to Georgia’s Poti port
By Tengiz Pachkoria
ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 27, 2005 Sunday
TBILISI, March 27 — The first railroad ferry from Russia is being
unloaded in the Georgian port of Poti.
“The Anenkov ferryboat has come from the port of Kavkaz on Russia’s
Stavropol territory with 18 train cars onboard. The train cars carry
corn. The ferry is being unloaded,” a source in the Poti port told
Itar-Tass.
At first the ferry will make one trip per week, and the traffic will be
more intensive later. Starting from April the ferry will deliver wine,
Borzhomi mineral water, magnesium concentrates and other commodities
from Poti to Kavkaz.
Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin and Georgian late prime
minister Zurab Zhvania signed an agreement on the ferry line this
January.
President Vladimir Putin said he hopes that the ferry line will
promote regional business. “I hope that this ferry line will meet
the interests of all regional countries. This is a good step in the
right direction. It will promote business and create jobs,” Putin said.
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries also have an access
to the ferry line.
The land railroad traffic between Georgia and Russia was stopped in
August 1992 after an armed conflict in the Abkhaz autonomous republic
had begun.