Launching of the Poti-Baku-Aktau-Almati container train will enable to increase the volume of the transit container traffic via Azerbaijan minimum by 4,5 times, the TRACECA transport corridor office told Trend.
About 300 containers pass through the Baku international trade seaport container terminal annually. The terminal itself is designed for handling of about 25.000 containers a year. A new train will consist of 28 wagons, each of them is capable to transport per two containers. Initially it is supposed to operate 2 times a month. Thus, the minimal traffic volume during the year will be about 1344 containers.
As the TRACECA office reports, China is currently expressing willingness to be involved in the project. For today this country is the major one in respect to the freight source. About 130,000 containers a year are transported via Russia for this country, which makes only part of this volume. The Bulgarian side also wants to participate in the project. It is going to connect its Black Sea port Varna to this project.
By the experts preliminary assessments involvement in this project will enable China to increase the volume of annual container traffic by 30 times.