BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 5. The Kazakh FlyArystan budget airline launched a flight on the Baku-Astana route from June 3, 2023, Trend reports.
Azerbaijan Railways CJSC is working on improving the infrastructure of railways, reducing the delivery time of goods from 35 days to 11-15 days. It was also noted that the national operator aims to increase cargo turnover along the North-South corridor to 54 million tons per year.
This week, it was announced that the grain terminal of the Baku International Sea Trade Port will have a capacity of 2.5 million tons per year. As part of the second phase of the construction of the Baku port, it is also planned to increase the transshipment of TEU containers to 500,000. At the moment, the port is able to handle 100,000 TEU containers.
Moreover, the importance of the Zangazur corridor was noted both for the development of the region and for the development of global transport infrastructures. The exit of Mersin (Turkish port) to the Zangazur corridor will contribute to faster and cheaper transportation.
This will be for the benefit of both Azerbaijan and Central Asia. In addition, the Zangazur corridor will also provide access to the Mediterranean Sea, which in turn is a very important achievement. Negotiations are underway with the Asian Development Bank in the context of international experience in the issue of intermodal and multimodal transport.
A total of 33,600 containers were transshipped through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, not counting the Turkmen direction, in 2022. There was an eight-fold increase in Kazakhstan's exports through this corridor in 2022. Members of the TITR Association signed a document on the creation of a roadmap worth 5.5-6 million euros in connection with the "bottlenecks" of the corridor.
Moreover, Damen ships will be built in Azerbaijan, in connection with which a memorandum of understanding on trilateral cooperation was signed between Baku Shipbuilding Plant LLC, Baku International Commercial Sea Port and Dutch Damen Shipyards Gorinchem B.V. on June 1 at the Baku Expo Center. As part of this cooperation, Damen ships will be built at the Baku Shipyard.
The Romanian port of Constanta and the Baku port are actively cooperating in the development of the Middle Corridor. Due to the current situation in the world, transport routes have changed and the Romanian side expects a large flow of goods through the Middle Corridor. At the moment, the Romanian port of Constanta and the Baku port are developing a memorandum of cooperation. The document is expected to be signed within the next few months.