The International Regional Rail Business Forum “Strategic Partnership 1520: the Caucasus Region”, held during October 11-13, 2010, in Baku (Azerbaijan) was devoted to the development of the Caucasus region’s transport infrastructure as the Caucasus, Trans-Caucasus and Central Asia are a very important intersection point of global land and sea routes. The “1520 area” is an infrastructure complex- resources and prospects for development in the Caucasus region, the interaction of sea and rail transport as part of the North – South corridor, experience in planning and construction in difficult mountainous conditions – all these issues were discussed during the Forum organized in Baku.
A logistics plus
“An important aspect of realising the transit potential of Russia and other CIS member-states is development of the North-South International Transport Corridor. The main direction of the North-South corridor ensures movement of freight traffic from Northern Europe across Russia via the Caspian Sea to Iran, the Persian Gulf and India, and also to the Caucasus and Central Asia. This meets the interests of participants in the transportation process, including owners of freight and representatives of the transport and forwarding business, thus adding to the region’s social and economic development”, said Igor Levitin, Transport Ministry of the Russian Federation. The delegates also considered prospects for developing the North-South transport corridor, increasing transit freight flows across the Caucasus region, the mechanisms for balancing export and import freight traffic, and opportunities for implementing the multimodal potential of the logistics service and for improving cooperation between national railway administrations with a view to enhancing the competitiveness of the North-South corridor. As Arif Askerov, head of Azerbaijan Railways, stated, the preferred option is to implement the corridor through the territory of Azerbaijan, as this route is shorter and involves crossing just one transit country which already has a railway infrastructure in place. According to forecasts, the volume of freight carried through the corridor could reach 25 million tonnes per year. Moreover, the project to link the railways of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran envisages investment to the tune of more than USD 300 Million, the greater part of which would be spent on work on Iran’s territory. The representatives of Kazakhstan, Georgian and Latvian railways told the participants in the plenary session about projects being implemented in their countries and the prospects of developing a transit corridor for the countries of Asia as well as the European market. The potential of the North-South Corridor development project, in particular its development on the Russia – Azerbaijan – Iran route, was noted on the part of Vadim Morozov, First Vice President of Russian Railways. According to him, this project is of great significance, in so far as the volume of freight transportation through the corridor is forecast at a level of 19 million tonnes by 2030, and the freight potential for this exists in the countries of the Persian Gulf and Asia. “A comparative analysis of the delivery times for freight from Europe and Russia to the countries of the Persian Gulf and South Asia shows that the advantage of direct rail routes using the new Qazvin – Rasht – Astara railway line could be up to 10 days,” Vadim Morozov declared. “According to the technical and economic case, the capacity of the new Rasht (Iran) – Astara (Azerbaijan) railway line could reach 9 million tonnes in 2015 and more than 19 million tonnes by 2030. The total scale of investment in construction of this line is assessed at USD 408 Million.” Igbal Guseynov, deputy chairman of Azerbaijan Railways, Irakli Ezugbaia, Director General of the Georgian Railway, and Yermek Kizatov, vice president of Kazakhstan Railways, spoke about the structural changes in railway transport management and the transport and transit potential of their countries. The representatives of the railways of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan noted the need to develop cooperation in the development of transport corridors through the countries of the Caspian and Transcaucasian regions. The significance of the TRACECA transport corridor, which provides for transportation of freight on the Europe – Caucasus – Asia route, was also noted during the special session of the forum in Baku. However, one of the basic complications of this corridor is that it involves two crossings, in the Caspian region and in the Black Sea region, which also affects the time taken for transportation.
by Elena Ilie
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