BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 29. The World Bank (WB) has named priorities for Black and Caspian Sea ports that should be prioritized in the development of the Middle Corridor (Trans-Caspian International Transport Route - TITR), the research of WB says, Trend reports.
"TITR member countries are improving the situation in ports, but there are priorities, shortcomings on which may create certain risks, i.e. they should be addressed urgently," WB experts suppose.
Thus, for the port of Poti, it is recommended to regulate connections between the port and highways/railroad station of Poti, which in the long term will be possible through the construction of a bypass road.
At Baku International Sea Trade Port (BISTP), it is proposed to avoid direct transshipment of cargo from ships to trains and vice versa in the currently ongoing second phase of expansion of the port (capacity will increase from 15 million tons per year to 25 million tons per year) and to use auxiliary means of transport.
The WB considers it necessary for the port of Aktau to involve more port cranes in loading and unloading operations.
"Kazakhstan should also acquire more railroad gantry cranes capable of moving along railroad lines," the research of WB noted.
The WB also makes the following recommendation for all ports involved in the implementation of the TITR: container parking time in ports can be differentiated - the base tariff can be lowered for cargoes with short parking time (less than three days in the port), and a higher tariff can be applied for the unloading-loading process, which takes more than three days.
"Customs inspection time can be reduced through the acquisition by ports of stationary and modern container scanners (adapted to any weather conditions), which will minimize the number of containers requiring physical/visual inspection," the WB experts stressed.
To note, TITR celebrated its 10th anniversary of operation in February.
The Middle Corridor links the container rail freight transportation networks of China and the European Union through Central Asia, the Caucasus, Türkiye, and Eastern Europe.
Multilateral multimodal transportation infrastructure links ferry terminals in the Caspian and Black Seas with railway systems in China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye, Ukraine, and Poland.
The corridor also facilitates increased cargo traffic from China to Türkiye, as well as to European countries and back.
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