Alikhan Osmanov, chief engineer of Baku Metro CJSC, gave an interview to report.az about the 55th anniversary of the Baku metro.
Speaking to the journalist, the chief engineer compared the construction of the metro in Azerbaijan during the period of independence with the experience of other post-Soviet countries.
"After the collapse of the USSR, metro construction stopped in several countries. But in countries with a stable economy like Azerbaijan, metro construction continued even during the period of independence," said Alikhan Osmanov.
Fakt Yoxla examined whether the claim about the suspension of metro construction in other countries was true.
Metro transport existed in seven of the fifteen republics of the former USSR - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. In the last thirty years, the construction of metro stations in the capitals of each of these countries has continued.
In the 1990s, 19 new stations were opened as a result of the 33-kilometer expansion of the Moscow metro system.
This trend also continued later.
In 2000-2010, 27 new stations were built in the city along the 42-kilometer metro line.
In the period of independence, expansion works were continued in the Kyiv metro. It is clear from the information on the website of the city metro that since 1991, up to 20 metro stations have been put into use in the capital of Ukraine.
New metro stations were also built in Minsk during the period of independence.
In 1995-2020, works related to the expansion of the metro lines of the city were carried out and new stations began to operate. During this period, the length of the Minsk metro line was increased by more than 25 kilometers.
In Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, new metro stations began to operate during the period of independence. In 2001, the third metro line was launched in the city.
There are 8 stations along this 10.5-kilometer-long line.
The length of the fourth metro line, commissioned in 2020, is 11 kilometers and there are 7 metro stations on this line.
The construction of metro lines in Tbilisi continued even during the period of independence. Two new stations were commissioned in the city in 2000 and 2017. During the period of independence, only 1 new metro station started operating in Yerevan, and its opening coincided with 1996.
The first metro station opened in Baku during the period of independence was opened in 1993 in the name of the late writer-playwright Jafar Jabbarli. A total of 7 new stations started operating - Hazi Aslanov in 2002, Nasimi in 2008, Azadlig Prospekti in 2009, Darnagul in 2011, Avtovaghzal in 2016, and 8 Noyabr in 2021.
Thus, new stations were built during the period of independence in each of the countries where metro transport existed during the USSR.
Fakt Yoxla concludes that Alikhan Osmanov's claim is Mostly False.
Editor's note: Since metro lines in Azerbaijan were built only in Baku, Fakt Yoxla’s research is limited to the capitals of the former USSR countries.
