Baku, Azerbaijan, July 16
By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:
The Viking train route, the participants of which include Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, can be connected to the Transport Corridor Europe Caucasus Asia (TRACECA), and this will positively affect the increase in the volume of freight transportation across Azerbaijan, TRACECA National Secretary in Azerbaijan Akif Mustafayev told Trend.
“We are working on the integration of several international routes to TRACECA, including Viking train route,” Mustafayev said. “We fully support the joining of the Viking route to TRACECA via the Black Sea.”
He also noted that the flow of goods transported via the Viking route through the Azerbaijani segment of TRACECA is still hard to be implemented, due to the need for multimodal transportation for this purpose and the use of several modes of transport.
“However, the integration of Viking route to TRACECA in Northern Europe can increase cargo turnover through the Azerbaijan segment of the corridor,” Mustafayev said.
Azerbaijan joined the Viking project in 2016. The operator on the Azerbaijani side is Karvan Logistics.
However, the Lithuanian Railways noted that no supplies from and to Azerbaijan have been implemented within the project.
The Viking train began to run in 2003. Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia are participants of the project. Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey joined the project later. The total length of its Ilyichevsk (Ukraine)-Minsk (Belarus)-Draugiste (Lithuania) route is 1,766 kilometers.
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