Yerevan, February 13 /Mediamax/. Starting from March 15, a train ferry communication for transportation of cargos from Armenia and back will start functioning by the route port Caucasus-Poti.

Mediamax reports that the corresponding protocol was signed in Yerevan today between the Armenian Ministry of Transport and Communication and the owner of the ferry - the Swiss “Reserve Capital” Corporation.

As the Minister of Transport and Communication Andranik Manukian noted, there is an agreement reached on the construction of a ship, which would house 50 train carriages. The ferry will be realizing two runs a week and will be functioning exclusively for Armenia.

According to the Minister, this will allow cutting down the expenditures of the Armenian transporters by 20%, since before the loads were being transported only via Ilyichevsk crossing, where the Ukrainian “UkrFerry” Company possessed monopoly rights.

According to the owner of the ferry Hakim Matchanov, the launching of ferry communication by the route Port Caucasus-Poti will satisfy both the needs of the Armenian and the Russian exporters and importers. He informed that the “Reserve Capital” has already taken up the construction of the second ship, which will be put into operation in May.

As Hakim Matchanov stated, during the first year of the functioning of the ferry communication, it is planned to make the volume of the loads from Armenia reach 15 thousand tons, and the import – 150 thousand tons, and by 2009, the given indices will make correspondingly 400 thousand tons and 1mln tons.