Baku, Azerbaijan, April 5
By Fakhri Vakilov – Trend:
Uzbekistan joined the China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway corridor, Trend reports with reference to the press service of Kazakhstan Railway.
"The flow of containerized cargo has increased, especially to Uzbekistan and through the Bolashak station to Iran, with the accession of Uzbekistan, the corridor becomes significantly shorter,", first deputy chairman of Kazakhstan Railways, Kanat Almagambetov said at a meeting of railway administrations of these five countries in Almaty.
Kazakhstan Railway said that the volume of traffic along the China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran corridor in 2018 was 1,000 TEU (container in 20-foot equivalent).
"For the development of transit cargo from China to our countries and in other directions, it is important to develop acceptable tariff and other conditions," said Almagambetov.
During the negotiations, the importance of timely delivery of goods to increase transportation was noted. In this regard, special attention is paid to meeting the demand for fitting platforms. The parties pledged to jointly provide the full amount of shippers with rolling stock.
At the meeting, issues of attracting additional goods to the Iran-China route, the organization of regular container services and the establishment of tariff conditions along the China-Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran corridor for 2019 for loaded containers were discussed. It is also reported that since April of this year, a regular feeder service is launched on the route Aktau - Alat.
Following the meeting, the parties also agreed on integrated tariff rates.
The total length of the route China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran is about 10,000 kilometers. The total travel time is about two weeks, which is twice as fast as by sea, which takes 25-30 days.
The China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway route is part of the North-South international transport corridor and the first logistics solution for speedy cargo delivery from the East China coast to the markets of the Persian Gulf. In Turkmenistan, based on the needs of suppliers and carriers, there are two routes from Serkhetyak: to Serakhs, to the southeastern border with Iran, or to Akyayl and from there to the north of Iran.
The creation of this transport and transit corridor became possible after the construction of the international railway Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran. The road was opened in December 2014 with the participation of the heads of state of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran.
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