/ world today news/ The signing of an agreement between Russia and Iran on cooperation in financing the design, construction and supply of goods and services for the establishment of the Rasht-Astara railway in Iran has become a major advance of the International Transport Corridor (ITC) project. “North-South”.
The idea of MTC “North – South” was born in 1999, when a group of Indian, Iranian and Russian transport companies signed a general agreement for export-import transportation of containers along the international transport corridor Sri Lanka – India – Iran – Caspian Sea – Russia.
On September 12, 2000, during the II Euro-Asian Transport Conference in St. Petersburg, an intergovernmental agreement on the creation of the North-South corridor was signed; Russia, Iran and India became participating countries. In May 2002, in St. Petersburg, the transport ministers of the participating countries signed a protocol for the official opening of the corridor. Hundreds of Indian containers were sent along the corridor between 2000 and 2002.
However, in the future, due to many technical difficulties, container transport along the international transport corridor was limited to the Russia-Iran route. Transportation of containers from India through Astrakhan was frozen. However, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Oman, Syria joined the agreement. Applications for accession were submitted by Turkey and Ukraine.
The special military operation launched by Russia in Ukraine has triggered heavy economic sanctions by the US and its allies, which has spurred the expansion of cooperation between Russia and Iran. An important step in this cooperation was the signing of an agreement to finance the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway.
However, the presence of a number of unresolved technical and competitive issues complicates the launch of MTK at full capacity.
„The delay of goods is due not only to the incompleteness of railway logistics, but also to the behavior of the Azerbaijan Customs Service, which often prevents the passage of goods. A similar situation also occurs in the Kazakh section of the eastern route of the MTC “North – South”.
Representatives of Russian and Iranian logistics companies declare the need for accelerated development of maritime infrastructure. The development of maritime transport will make it possible to do without the participation of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan or, in any case, to significantly reduce dependence on Baku and Astana. writes the Russian orientalist Alexander Knyazev in his Telegram channel.
Faced with cargo delays as they pass through Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan customs, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan carriers “they will already quite seriously master the route through Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and the Caspian Sea”.
„The behavior of the Azerbaijani country is rather due to its own plans for the development of transport infrastructure in the Transcaucasia “, “Ribar” Telegram channel commented on the situation. – If the construction of the Rasht-Astara section of the railway is completed and the North-South line operates at full capacity, then the Zangezur Corridor project, which Aliyev envisioned after the victory in the 44-day war, will have serious competition. Therefore, the problems that arise at the customs are more like a desire to annoy the competitor. And the way out of this situation is indeed the development of maritime infrastructure across the Caspian Sea.
As for Kazakhstan, during the summit of the Organization of Turkic States held in Samarkand, President Tokayev emphasized that for his country the width of “The Trans-Caspian international transport route, passing through the territories of three brotherly countries – Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey”, bypassing the territory of Russia is a priority.
At the international forum “Russia – Islamic World: KazanForum” there was a lot of talk about the development of the North-South MTK, in particular the need to build a marine terminal in the Caspian Sea. The Trans-Caspian section of the MTC passes through the ports of Astrakhan – Olya – Makhachkala – Bandar Anzeli (Iran) – Bandar Amirabad (Iran) – Nowshahr (Iran) – Bandar Abbas (Iran) – Mumbai (India). The main problem in realizing this multimodal sea route is the problem of profitability.
The vice-president of the International Academy of Transport Vitaly Zbarashchenko notes that “if you are transporting goods across the Caspian Sea, you need to do two transshipments. As a result, the price turns out to be such that it does not become profitable for anyone. Therefore, the wagons must be transported by ferry without overloading the cargo from them, and for this it is necessary to make double-decker ferries and double-decker rails – ramps at the ports for loading and unloading.
Then it will be possible to do without elevators, which significantly increase the loading time. The cargo will not be transhipped everywhere at the ports, it will just roll with the wagons on and off the ferry.’ A similar technology was used in the USSR in the communication between Lithuania and the GDR.
For the efficient organization of cargo transportation along the Trans-Caspian section of the North-South MTK, it is also necessary to carry out a number of dredging works on the inland waterways of the Unified Deep Water System of the Russian Federation and the Volga – Navigation Channel of the Caspian Sea.
It is also necessary to modernize the railway approaches to the ports of Astrakhan and Olya in the section Aksarayskaya – Saratov; construction of a multifunctional port and logistics complex on the territory of the port special economic zone in the Astrakhan region (Olya port). Dredging in the Caspian Sea is already underway, reconstruction of the Volga-Caspian Canal is also underway, as well as Russian seaports. The development of marine logistics terminals in the Caspian Sea is envisaged.
The plans for the development of MTC “North – South” as a transit were announced already 20 years ago. However, during the elapsed period of time, their implementation has progressed very little. However, now the MTK North – South has acquired strategic importance and is no longer aimed at the transit of foreign goods through Russia, but at the transportation of Russian foreign trade goods by the shortest route for the entry of domestic goods into world markets.
The full launch of the cost-effective model of the Trans-Caspian section of the North-South MTK will largely neutralize the competitive advantages of the transit countries that control the western and eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, as cargo will be sent from Russia by sea directly to Iran and beyond onwards to the ports of the Indian Ocean.
For Russia, the effect of the operation of the North-South MTK will become much more significant than the previously assumed transit of foreign cargo, because in the conditions of heavy sanctions of the collective West, it gives our country the opportunity to directly enter the markets in Southern Eurasia and beyond the world.
Translation: ES
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