According to Igor Babushkin, the governor of the Astrakhan region in Russia, a new multimodal transport corridor with the participation of Russia will be available for Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan while bypassing the territory of Kazakhstan.
The «Southern Transport Corridor» is going to stretch from Kyrgyzstan via Uzbekistan and the Caspian Sea port of Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan to the port of Astrakhan in Russia. This is going to be the shortest route bypassing obstacles on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
As Babushkin noted, the new route will boost the trade and economic relations between the countries and will contribute to the development of regional integration.
The Ministry of Economy and Commerce of Kyrgyzstan said that it has been looking for the most effective way to boost trade in Kyrgyzstan. However, the agency hasn’t revealed what other routes it is going to use for trade with other Central Asian countries.
Babushkin also wrote on his Telegram channel that the North-South international transport corridor is a multimodal route from St. Petersburg to India, which goes through Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. It is both cheaper and half as long as other routes, which is its key advantage.
«To boost the development of this transport corridor we have already started reconstruction of the Karauzek checkpoint at the border with Kazakhstan. Secondly, we are working on expanding the capacity of the Volga-Caspian Shipping Canal in order to boost cargo turnover by sea,» Babushkin wrote on Telegram.
On the other hand, on June 22, Kazakhstan Railways and Azerbaijan Railways signed an agreement on the establishment of a united company in the sphere of logistics.
The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR or Middle Corridor) stretches from China to Europe and goes via Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The TITR association, which consolidates Kazakhstan Railways, Sea Port of Aktau, Azerbaijan Railways, Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company, Baku International Sea Trade Port, Georgian Railway, TCDD Transportation (a subsidiary of the Turkish Railways) and Ukrainian Railways, is headquartered in Astana.
In 2022, TITR reported an increase in cargo shipping by 2.5 times to 1.5 million tons compared to the previous year. The amount of container traffic reached 33,000 TEUs, which is 33% more than in 2021, Kursiv reports.
