Iran expects North-South corridor cargo transit to grow to 2 mln tonnes in 2024 - ambassador

ASTRAKHAN. Aug 19 (Interfax) - The Islamic Republic of Iran is planning to increase transit of cargo via the eastern branch of the International North-South Transport Corridor threefold, reaching two million tonnes, in 2024, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said.

"We started operating transportation of cargo via this [eastern] branch in 2023 with the help of the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. This capacity was 650,000 tonnes in 2023. Given the potential of this branch, we have agreed with the Russian side and determined the goal of two million tonnes for 2024," Jalali told reporters at the 9th Caspian Media Forum in Astrakhan on Saturday.

The capacity of the eastern section of the corridor is 15 million tonnes of cargo, this is why "we need to move towards fully using the potential of this branch," he said.

The International North-South Transport Corridor links the north of Europe with the countries of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean via Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Russia, Iran and India signed the agreement on the creation of this multimodal corridor in 2000, and today, 12 countries are parties to it. The corridor comprises three branches - the western one along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, the eastern one along the eastern shore of it, via Kazakhstan, and the trans-Caspian one, via the Caspian Sea.