North-South corridor may expand to India and Scandinavian countries

Baku. 7 November. REPORT.AZ/ It is planned to hold future meetings on the North-South International Transport Corridor not only in the countries that are members of this route, but also in the countries interested in joining the corridor.

Report informs, Igbal Huseynov, Deputy Chairman of "Azerbaijan Railways" CJSC Management Board, told journalists.

According to him, question is about India and Scandinavian countries, emerging and destination point of freight via route: "One of the ideas put forward in informal meetings is to hold the next meeting in India. If experts from 4 countries support this idea in today's meeting, the issue will be reflected in the final protocol".

Regarding the volume of freight to be transported by this route, I. Huseynov noted that "Azerbaijan Railways" has already constructed railway to Iran's Astara, from Azerbaijan's Astara station to Astarachay, through the bridge over it: "Both stations have additional ways to accept and dispatch cargoes. It is planned to install 4 terminals at the stations, one of which will be constructed for containers, one for common cargo, one for oil products and one for grain products. Opening of the first terminal is expected in December of this year and the expected volume of cargo to next year is 1.5-2 mln tons".

Notably, quadripartite (Azerbaijan, Russia, Belarus, Iran) meeting of the North-South International Transport Corridor Working Group on Development in the West has today started in Baku.