Kazakhstan has big expectations and big plans for the development of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC). The Central Asian country is handing out a serious discount on freight transit along the eastern branch of the corridor, it wants to create a whole new rail operator for the route and grow capacity twofold.
In order to encourage shippers to make use of the eastern branch of the INSTC, which runs along the east coast of the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan is offering a 50 per cent discount on transit traffic on its territory. At the same time, the Kazakhstan transport minister Marat Karabayev says that work is ongoing to create a logistical operator for the eastern INSTC.
“Kazakhstan and Russia have already conducted preparatory procedures for the creation of a joint enterprise. The position of Turkmenistan on the participation in the project is awaited”, Karabayev said.
Twofold capacity increase
The ministry is also expecting throughput capacity to grow significantly on the route. Currently, the eastern branch of the INSTC has a capacity of 10 million tonnes annually, but that is supposed to grow to 20 million tonnes. For the time being, however, only 1,8 million tonnes transit the corridor on a yearly basis. Nevertheless, Kazakhstan plans to boost it twofold, “considering the potential of the corridor”, the minister said.
The INSTC is an international transport corridor that runs between Russia and Iran, along both sides of the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan is aiming to establish itself as a major freight transit hub, not only for China – Europe traffic, but also for freight in the north – south direction.