Kazakhstan intends to up container transportation through Azerbaijan
By Kamila Aliyeva
Kazakhstan intends to significantly increase the container transportation from China to Turkey through Azerbaijan bringing the figure up to 300,000 containers by 2020.
The Kazakh Ministry of Investments and Development reported that the transportation will be increased due to the commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line and the Kuryk port on the Caspian Sea.
The construction of the ferry complex in the Kazakh port of Kuryk is planned to be fully completed in 2017. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is expected to be put into operation in the second half of 2017.
In general, by 2020 Kazakhstan aims to increase the volume of container transportation to two million containers, according to the ministry.
In addition to the container transportation in the direction of China-Caucasus-Turkey, it is planned to increase the transportation in the direction of China-EU-China to 800,000 containers by reorienting from sea transport to rail transport through 15 provinces of China.
Moreover, the volume of the transported containers will be increased in the direction of China-Turkmenistan-Iran up to 680,000 with the provision of favorable tariffs for transit cargo transportation by Kazakhstan Railways of and in other areas up to 220,000 containers.
Due to the measures that were taken, Kazakhstan’s revenue from transit traffic for 2016 amounted to 267 billion tenge (316.8 tenge = 1 dollar), which is 40 percent more than the 2015 indicator.
Four major international transport corridors cross the territory of Kazakhstan, including the Northern corridor of the Trans-Asian Railway (TAR), the Southern corridor of the Trans-Asian Railway (TAR), Transport Corridor Europe-Caucuses-Asia (TRACECA) and the North-South.
Being situated between Europe and Asia, Kazakhstan boasts of a great transit potential, as there is no other alternatives for Asian states to link to Russia and Europe.
Growing interest in the transport infrastructures passing through Azerbaijan's territory is expected to make the country a major transport hub in the region.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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