Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan to set up operator for eastern branch of North-South corridor

ASTANA. April 21 (Interfax) - KTZ Express, RZD Logistics, and Turkmenistan Transport and Logistics Center signed a memorandum at the TransRussia 2023 international exhibition to set up a joint venture for logistics services in the North-South corridor.

"The joint venture will set up a logistics operator for the eastern branch of the North-South transport corridor," Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) said.

The parties agreed to join forces to develop competitive tariff rates and organize seamless freight transportation from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan to Iran, India, the countries of the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region via the cross-border stations of Aksaraiskaya, Ozinki, Bolashak, Inche-Burun, Serakhs.

"The North-South corridor for Kazakhstan is one of the key areas to expand transportation services and economic ties with Iran and India. The obvious advantages of this land corridor via Kazakhstan are the high speed of delivery and the all-weather transportation," KTZ said.

The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) said earlier it planned to start monthly shipments of goods via the eastern branch of the North-South transport corridor with the involvement of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

North-South is an international transport corridor linking Russia and India via Iran. Under the agreement from September 12, 2000, the corridor has three main freight directions: a Trans-Caspian branch through Astrakhan, Olya, Makhachkala ports; an Eastern branch, a direct railway service through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to Iran Iranian through the Tejen-Serakhs border crossing; and a Western branch, Astrakhan - Makhachkala - Samur, via Azerbaijan to the Astara border station.