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North-South corridor gaining much significance

25 April 2016 17:45 (UTC+04:00)
North-South corridor gaining much significance

By Aynur Karimova

The North-South international transport corridor has acquired significant importance, Vladimir Yakunin believes.

The former head of Russian Railways, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called, told Trend on April 25 that this project becomes so important in the prospect of the development of international trade, international relations.

"When we started this project in the Russian Transport Ministry together with Azerbaijan, we didn't even fully understand what importance it had," he said. "I think that the countries, which are involved in this project, including Azerbaijan, should develop and promote this project."

The North-South corridor, from India to Helsinki, with a length of 5,000 kilometers is designed to carry more than 20 million tons per year. It is a multimodal route for transportation of passengers and cargo from Russia's St. Petersburg to the Mumbai port. It is designed to carry transit cargo from India, Iran and other Persian Gulf countries to the territory of Russia (the Caspian Sea) and further - to Northern and Western Europe.

The North-South route enjoys several advantages compared to other transport corridors; it is more profitable for each parameter than other alternative routes, such as the Suez Canal-the Mediterranean Sea-Northern Europe and the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan-Russia-Northern Europe routes.

The preliminary estimates show that at an initial stage, it is designed to transport 6 million tons of cargo via the North-South corridor a year, and 15 to 20 million tons of cargo in the future.

Economists believe that the North-South project is of strategic importance for the region. It can be profitable for all countries, including Russia, which can get an access to the waters of the Persian and Oman Gulfs via this corridor. Also, this route can help Russia with cargo transportation.

They say that cargoes, which come from China, can be directed to Northern Europe, and the goods from Western Europe - to Iran. So, it actually combines the North-South and East-West corridors.

In this case, Azerbaijan, with its favorable strategic and geographic location on the intersection major transport projects linking north with south and east with west, will become a hub, a logistics center of transit cargo transportation.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter @Aynur_Karimova

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