BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 12. The flow of goods can be increased by 1.5 times - up to about seven million tons per year along the North-South international transport corridor, political scientist, and researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Karavayev told Trend.
The flow will be carried out within the framework of the existing infrastructure of the international transport corridor (ITC).
According to Karavayev, access to such capacities depends on the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia, as well as the transit of Russian cargo through Azerbaijan to Iran and Turkey.
"The cargo traffic by the road along the North-South ITC was about 4.5-5 million tons at the Russian-Azerbaijani border in 2019. Within the framework of the existing infrastructure, this cargo traffic can be increased by 1.5 times - up to about seven million tons per year. In general, the infrastructure capacity is 15 million tons of cargo per year," emphasized Karavayev.
In addition, he noted that the current changes in the political and economic situation are opening up completely new opportunities for the development of the North-South ITC.
"This corridor is becoming one of the key directions in the export of its goods for the Russian side, and this trend will only further progress," Karavayev said.
Karavayev also noted that in order to increase cargo traffic and reduce transport time, it is necessary to accelerate the expansion of the route, and customs checkpoints and build new roads.
The expert believes that the Azerbaijani side solves this issue by creating a new toll road, and the Russian side - by modernizing the route, starting in Russia’s Dagestan and continuing to the M4 Don (Rostov-on-Don) highway.
“It is also necessary to work on the legal harmonization and reduction of the number of barriers that contribute to the accumulation of vehicles at the borders," he added.
According to Karavayev, there is a need to attract logistics and transport companies to carry out cargo transportation and resolve emerging issues.
He stated that the North-South ITC is not only road transport, but also rail transport, and today countries along the corridor need to work on the modernization of railway lines.
"The work on the modernization of the railway infrastructure, unlike the road infrastructure, is longer. All work on the modernization of railway junctions, crossings, signaling, and construction of bridges on sections of the Azerbaijani-Russian border is planned to be completed by the end of 2024," the expert said..