Coal shipped from Kuzbass to India via North-South ITC for first time

KEMEROVO. June 24 (Interfax) - For the first time, two trains with Kuzbass coal have been sent to India via the North-South International Transport Corridor, Russian Railways said on its Telegram channel.

"The trains started from the Kemerovo Region. They have traveled along the eastern branch of the ITC through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. At the Turkmen-Iranian border, the coal was reloaded into 1,435 mm gauge wagons of Iranian railways," Russian Railways said.

As noted, the coal will be shipped by sea along the final part of the route from the port of Bandar Abbas to the Indian port of Mumbai.

The North-South ITC is a multimodal route that includes a railway, a roadway network and seaports. It consists of western, eastern and trans-Caspian routes. The agreement to establish the corridor was signed in 2000 and 10 countries are participants.