ASTANA, Kazakhstan, December 23. The volume of cargo transportation along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor, or TITR) has increased fivefold over the past four years, Kazakhstan's Minister of Transport Marat Karabaev said at the government session, Trend reports.
"Currently, two key transit corridors are actively developing, one of which is the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route with a capacity of 6 million tons. The volume of transportation on this corridor has increased over the past four years from 800,000 tons to 4.1 million tons, which means a fivefold growth. During this period, the delivery time for goods has decreased from 58-60 days to 13-15 days," he said.
According to Karabaev, to further develop the corridor, a roadmap was approved in collaboration with Azerbaijan, Türkiye, and Georgia to eliminate obstacles arising during transportation.
"Our immediate goal is to increase the corridor's capacity to 10 million tons per year," the minister emphasized.
At the same time, Karabaev added that a significant issue is the lack of a domestic fleet.
"Currently, only Azerbaijani ferries operate on the Kurik–Alat route. We already need at least seven vessels. Turkish companies YDA and ASFAT plan to build a special plant near the Kurik port to produce them," he noted.
To note, the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, also known as the Middle Corridor, is an international transportation route that passes through China, Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and then on to Türkiye and European countries. A part of this corridor is the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.