Baku port to start dredging in early 2027

The Port of Baku plans to begin dredging in the first quarter of 2027 and complete an expansion raising its annual container handling capacity to 260,000 TEU in the second half of the year, port adviser Khudayar Hasanli said.

The dredging project envisages increasing the depth from 8 metres to 8.8 metres, he said. The port has launched a tender, with the results expected by the end of this year.

“We will start dredging next year, in the first quarter,” Hasanli said in an interview.

He said a foreign company would be brought in to carry out the work but declined to identify potential contractors before the tender was completed.

Dredging forms part of a broader programme to raise the port’s annual container handling capacity from 150,000 to 260,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).

The expansion also includes rebuilding and reinforcing a berth for container handling, adding railway tracks within the port, developing a container yard and purchasing equipment. One new crane has already been purchased and another ordered, Hasanli said.

The full package of works is expected to be completed in the second half of 2027.

Hasanli said infrastructure development along the Middle Corridor was failing to keep pace with rising container traffic. Countries along the route need to coordinate capacity expansion because constraints in individual sections affect the entire transport chain, he added.

Preparations are also under way for the port’s second development phase, which envisages increasing total annual cargo handling capacity to 25 million tonnes, including container capacity of 500,000 TEU.

Hasanli said the ministry was working on a market study and master plan, with further announcements expected next year.
 

N.Tebrizli