Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 30
By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:
Turkmenistan and Romania agreed to intensify political and diplomatic efforts to sign in the future a political declaration on the establishment of the Caspian Sea - Black Sea transport and transit corridor, the "Turkmengaz" State Concern said in a statement July 28.
It is planned to hold quadripartite talks in this regard with the participation of Azerbaijan and Georgia in the near future.
This was one of the important results of the meeting of the Turkmen-Romanian working group on transport, held recently in the Pre-Caspian city of Turkmenbashi.
"Romania needs to use every opportunity to transform its Black Sea port of Constanta into one of the most important parts of the transport-transit corridor connecting the Caspian and Black seas", the message quotes the State Secretary at the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Magdalena Grigore as saying.
It is expected that Constanta can become a point of transshipment to the EU of goods transported from the Turkmen port of Turkmenbashi, as well as from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in the context of ensuring access of goods from Turkmenistan and other Central Asian countries to European markets. The parties have been studying the optimal routes for the Black Sea-Caspian Sea transit corridor using the advantages of Constanta and Turkmenbashi ports.
In particular, the State Service of Maritime and River Transport of Turkmenistan has been studying in recent years the possibility of transportation of goods, including liquefied gas to Constanta port. The supply route involves the use of special containers and runs through the Caspian Sea to Baku (Azerbaijan), and further to Batumi or Poti (Georgia, the Black Sea region) by rail and therefrom to Romania by sea.
The opening ceremony of the international seaport was held in the beginning of May in the Pre-Caspian Turkmenbashi City. The cost of the project implemented by Gap Inşaat Company (Turkey) is more than $1.5 billion.
With the commissioning of the Turkmenbashi port, the great opportunities have emerged for sending goods arriving in Turkmenbashi port along the "Silk Road" route from Asia and the Pacific region, further to European countries through the ports of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. The port complex includes a common loading terminal, bulk cargo terminal, polypropylene terminal, as well as shipbuilding and ship repair docks. The road with flyover junctions has also been built, and the railway tracks have been laid.
The project is developed in accordance with the international Greenport standard. The annual intake capacity of the port will be 17-18 million tons. Together with the previously operating port, this figure makes up 25-26 million tons. The international ferry and passenger port can serve 300,000 passengers and 75,000 trailers per year. The container terminal has an average annual capacity of 400,000 TEU.
Multimodal Logistics Park provides a range of services for storage and the combined handling of containers and cargo delivered by air, road and rail transport, providing their transshipment onto water transport and vice versa.