Azerbaijan increases number of ferries in Caspian Sea
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan seeks to increase the number of its ferries in the Caspian Sea with a view to speed up the transportation traffic.
The cargo transportation from Turkey to Central Asia is believed to increase as Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company has commissioned ferries Karabakh and Academician Topchubashov.
The company owns 13 ferries of various cargo capacities that are kept in reserve and used when needed with a view to cut costs.
Given the significant increase in the volume of cargo transportation, the Azerbaijani Shipping Company decided to return a number of backup ferries to the operation in early December.
Currently, ten ferries and two Ro-Ro ships carry out transportation of wagons and wheeled vehicles in the sea. Five ferries and one Ro-Ro ship are involved on the route Baku-Aktau, while another five ferries and a Ro-Ro ship work on the Baku-Turkmenbashi direction.
In addition, another two ferries – Professor Gul and Mercury 1 – will be put into operation before the end of this year, the company said.
The Company regularly communicates with the ports of Aktau and Turkmenbashi to organize queues of ships and take measures to accelerate the unloading of ferries.
Earlier, the strongest hurricane in the last 10 years that was registered in the Caspian Sea on December 4, affected the schedule of ferry services.
“Ferries Academician Zarifa Aliyeva and Academician Hasan Aliyev that left Baku on December 16 and 18, still cannot come to the access ramp,” the company’s reported on December 22.
Despite the fact that the ferries sequentially sent from Baku to Aktau, several ferries could not enter the port, as it was declared closed due to weather conditions. In this regard, a large number of trucks from Turkey have been accumulated in the Baku port.
Azerbaijan now puts a stake on the development of the transportation sector as part of enlarging the non-oil sector. Earlier, the country has applied attractive transportation fees in an effort to become a major transport hub of the region.
The country made a nearly 40-percent reduction in the transit cost of cargo transportations by large trucks to the Aktau and Turkmenbashi ports. Moreover, tariffs were reduced by 20 percent in order to improve the attractiveness of maritime transportation of cars traveling from Turkey to Kazakhstan.
Azerbaijan also plans in the near future to reduce the period for cargo transit, simplify procedures and ensure transparency of rules and procedures for cargo transportation.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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