The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is getting two new transport routes. On the western side, Russia is launching a new rail route through Azerbaijan into Iran. Across the Caspian Sea, on the eastern Central Asian side, a multimodal route now connects Uzbekistan and India.
Russian Railways approved the route for a new rail service between Ulyanovsk and Iranian Astara on 20 August, writes Azerbaijani publication Azernews.
“Recently, we received good news from Russian Railways: the route for the direct cargo block train ‘Ulyanovsk – Baku – Astara’ has been approved”, the governor of the Ulyanovsk province stated. “Preparations are underway for the export train, including for the shipment of agro-industrial and wood processing products.”
Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, Vladimir Putin visited Azerbaijan the day prior to the announcement. Russia and Azerbaijan cooperate to develop the western corridor of the INSTC.
Multimodally from India to Uzbekistan
On 21 August, the Uzbek transport ministry welcomed the arrival of an earlier announced new multimodal transport route between India and Uzbekistan. In a LinkedIn post, the ministry said that freight operator Uztemiryulcontainer had “successfully organised a new multimodal route for container transportation from Indian ports of Mundra, Nhava Sheva and Chennai to Uzbekistan.”
“The cargo was delivered by sea from India to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and then by rail to Sergeli station. The first freight train, consisting of 20 containers of 20 feet each, covered 2,673 km in 20 days. In the future, it is planned to reduce the delivery time to 15 days”, the ministry said.
India has expressed great interest in the development of the INSTC. It presents the country with an easy access route to Russian energy products, notably coal. However, the new multimodal route to Uzbekistan suggests that its interest in the corridor extends beyond cheap energy resources.