Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have agreed to actualize the synchronous elimination of bottlenecks on the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR, or Middle Corridor), the deputy chairman of the Committee of Railway and Water Transport of Kazakhstan, Kasym Tlepov, said during the meeting with the Azerbaijani delegation.
Thus, the parties considered issues within the framework of the implementation of the signed Road Map on synchronous elimination of “bottlenecks” and development of the Middle Corridor on the territories of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Türkiye for 2022–2027.
Tlepov informed about the ongoing work to expand the capacity of the corridor. According to him, in 2023, the volume of transhipment through the seaports of Aktau and Kuryk increased by 65 percent and amounted to 2.76 million tons of cargo.
“Within the framework of the implementation of the roadmap on synchronous elimination of bottlenecks and the development of TITR, the parties are actively working to expand the capacity of the corridor. An agreement has been reached to update this roadmap. In turn, Kazakhstan is making efforts to develop transport and transit potential in the region and modernize transport corridors,” Tlepov emphasized.
He also shared information on railway projects, raising the status of the TITR association, digitalizing TITR, creating a single logistics operator, and building port capacity.
To note, 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.
A multilateral multimodal transportation infrastructure links ferry terminals on the Caspian and Black Seas with the railway systems of China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye, Ukraine, and Poland.
The middle corridor facilitates increased cargo traffic from China to Türkiye, as well as to European countries and in the opposite direction.
A route train along this corridor delivers cargo from China to Europe in an average of 20-25 days, and this is one of the main advantages of this transport corridor.
