BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 10. Azerbaijan has great opportunity and potential in the field of transit, Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development of Iran and head of Road and Transport Organization Dariush Amani said, Trend reports citing the ministry.
Amani added that developing cooperation with Azerbaijan, as well as with Turkmenistan and India in the direction of cargo transit is on Iran's agenda.
“About 10 million tons of cargo were transited through Iran's land border terminals in the last Iranian year (March 21, 2021 through March 20, 2022). Taking into account that the transit of 20 million tons of cargo is targeted for the current Iranian year (March 21, 2022 through March 20, 2023), the opportunities of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) should be used,” he said.
Meanwhile, for the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through November 21, 2022), 5.4 million tons of cargo were transited through Iran's land border terminals, which is an increase of 8 percent compared to the same period last Iranian year, Amani noted.
The foundation of the ‘International North-South Transport Corridor’ was laid on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement signed between Russia, Iran, and India on September 12, 2000. In total, 13 countries have ratified the agreement, including Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Russia, Türkiye, etc.
The purpose of creating a corridor is to reduce the delivery time of cargo from India to Russia, as well as to North and West Europe. Delivery time on the current route is more than 6 weeks, it is expected to be reduced to 3 weeks via North-South Transport Corridor.
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