Georgia has now fully opened the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, almost two decades after the project began.

But transport expert Paata Tsagareishvili says the line enters service with old problems, weak cargo numbers and growing competition from Turkey’s wider railway plans in the South Caucasus, The Caspian Post reports, citing Democracy and Freedom Watch.

Tsagareishvili, director of the Transport Corridor Research Center, told Interpressnews that the railway is an important strategic asset for Georgia and a powerful new branch of the Middle Corridor, the route linking Asia and Europe through the South Caucasus. But he also said the project was badly managed from the start.

“Today, the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway may be assessed as a project implemented over a long period, with low financial return, concession of the country’s strategic interests and, overall, weak management by the state of a financially intensive infrastructure facility,” he said.

The project dates back to 2007, when the presidents of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a trilateral agreement to build the railway. Tsagareishvili said almost 20 years was too long, and blamed early decisions by the Georgian state for handing too much financial and management control to Azerbaijan.