Baku, Azerbaijan, November 1
Trend:
Russia, India and Iran are planning to restructure logistics in the Asian region and to launch a new international transport corridor, which will be an alternative to the Suez Canal, the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement, a TASS report said.
A meeting of representatives of Russia, India and Iran will take place on November 23 at which the launch of the North-South international transport corridor will be discussed, said the report.
The new transport corridor will extend to the distance of 7200 km and will connect the Indian Ocean with Russia and Europe. In 2014-2017, the test launches were already carried out along this route.
The goods will be shipped by sea from India to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, then will be delivered by trains to the largest port of Iran, Bandar-Anzali, then they will be dispatched to Astrakhan and will be transported to Europe by rail.
The corridor will become a cheaper and shorter alternative to the Suez Canal: the time and cost of freight traffic will decrease by 30-40%. Thus, the average time of delivery of cargo from Mumbai to Moscow is to be reduced by about 20 days.
It is planned that 20-30 million tons of goods will be transported through the new route annually.
Russia stopped purchases of Turkmen fuel and currently, it is negotiating the conditions for renewal of the contract.