In central Georgia in October, golden vineyards set off silver rails. Local engineer Mikhail stroked the brand new signal lights and exclaimed, "Three years ago, this was still a bumpy old railway line, but now the train speed has doubled, and our wine can be transported to Europe faster!" The Zestaponi Kashuri railway he participated in the construction of is like a steel ribbon, connecting the new dream of Sino European trade.

A leap of steel along the Belt and Road

This 43.9-kilometer-long railway extends along the east-west transportation artery, covering both line upgrades and new construction sections, and is the largest railway project since Georgia's independence. The project has overcome the complex geology of the Caucasus Mountains, using techniques such as tunnel excavation and bridge installation, reducing transportation time from Tbilisi to Black Sea ports by over one-third. The Georgian Minister of Infrastructure bluntly stated, "It has enabled our country's logistics competitiveness in the Trans Caspian Corridor to soar for at least ten years

A win-win sample of localized cooperation

Chinese masters taught me how to use a total station for positioning, and now I can independently command bridge construction! "Kia Berize, who used to be an ordinary worker, presented her training certificate. During the project construction period, China Railway 23rd Bureau provided technical training to over a thousand local employees and imparted knowledge on power supply, communication systems, and other related areas. This "teaching people how to fish" model has achieved a localization participation rate of 65% in the project, far exceeding the international average level.

The golden channel of regional economy

After the railway was opened, the industrial areas along the line have experienced an investment boom. A manager of a Tbilisi car parts factory said, "Previously, transportation costs accounted for 20% of product prices, but now it is directly connected to Black Sea ports by railway, reducing freight costs by half." Analysis shows that the annual freight capacity of this route has jumped from millions of tons to tens of millions of tons, not only helping Georgia integrate into the China Europe trade chain, but also making the Trans Caspian Sea Corridor an important alternative to traditional Russian routes. Keywords: the Belt and Road news, the Belt and Road latest information

As trains whizzed through newly constructed tunnel clusters, the railway map of Georgia has been redrawn. This transportation trunk line with the wisdom of China and Georgia is transforming the "soft connectivity" of the the Belt and Road into the hard power of regional development.Editor/Yang Meiling