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India, Azerbaijan to have better connectivity with full operation of North-South Corridor

Transport Materials 25 June 2020 10:51 (UTC +04:00)
India, Azerbaijan to have better connectivity with full operation of North-South Corridor

BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 25

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

The full operation of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) will ensure better connectivity between India and Azerbaijan and the larger Eurasian region, which will facilitate India's trade and economic engagement with Eurasia and Europe, Indian embassy in Baku told Trend.

“India attaches high importance to the INSTC to improve connectivity and increase trade with the Eurasian region, including Azerbaijan. With full operationalization of the INSTC, it is hoped that the time taken and cost involved for cargo movement from India to Russia will be significantly reduced. It is estimated that the INSTC route from Mumbai to Moscow via Baku through Bandar Abbas or Chabahar ports in Iran would be significantly more cost effective and 40 percent shorter than the current sea route,” said the embassy.

As pointed out, India is one of founding members of the 7,200 km long multi-mode transport network International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), the foundation for which was laid on the basis of the intergovernmental agreement signed between Russia, Iran and India on September 12, 2000. Azerbaijan joined this agreement in 2005. In total, 13 countries have ratified the agreement.

“As one of the initiators of INSTC, India takes an active role in the development of INSTC. India’s Federation of Freight Forwarders of India (FFFAI) conducted the first dry run on INSTC with the objective to identify the bottleneck/missing links. The dry run was conducted on the route Nhava Sheva (Mumbai) - Bandar Abbas (Iran) - Tehran-Bandar Anzali (Iran) Astrakhan(Russia); and Nhava Sheva (Mumba) - Bandar Abbas (Iran) - Baku (Azerbaijan),” said the Indian embassy.

The embassy said that after the successful dry run on the INSTC in 2014, FFFAI in cooperation with the Indian Ministry of Commerce organized the INSTC conference in Mumbai on June 12, 2015 to create greater awareness about the potential and opportunities for trade between the member countries using the INSTC.

“The Kalinga Motor Sports Club (KMSC) of India with the support of Government of India organized a Motor Car rally consisting of 20 motor cars travelling from India to Iran, Azerbaijan and then to Russia and back during May 2018 to popularize the INSTC route among member countries. Indian officials and stakeholders have been actively participating at the Coordination Council, Expert level and Working Group meetings of INSTC,” the embassy said.

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