ASTANA — President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev took part online in the ceremony marking the arrival of a container train from Xian to Absheron along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) on March 11, reported Akorda press service.
Photo credit: Akorda
The event was preceded by the opening of Kazakhstan’s terminal in Xian and the launch of the first train on the China-Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan route on Feb. 28.
Addressing the event participants, Tokayev emphasized that Eurasia’s new transport and logistics framework is being built today amid global geopolitical turbulence. He believes that close and fruitful cooperation between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan plays a key role in this process. Due to the joint efforts, the trade and economic potential of the two countries is expanding.
Aliyev congratulated transport workers on this major event. He noted that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have strengthened their cooperation in many areas, including the transit and transport sectors.
The presidents thanked all Kazakh and Azerbaijani specialists for their productive joint work and wished them further success.
According to Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the train with goods reached Baku in 11 days. The container train is dispatched by the Transport Logistics Center in Xian, China, which Kazakhstan owns. The train, consisting of 61 containers, covered the 7,000 kilometers route from the Kazakh terminal in Xian to Aktau and to the Absheron station.
In Kazakhstan, the train covered a distance of 3,128 kilometers from Altynkol to the port of Aktau in three days.
During multimodal transportation, containers were reloaded in Kazakhstan’s ports – at the dry port Khorgos Gateway and the seaport of Aktau. They were then transported via the Caspian sea to the Baku sea port and to the Absheron station using the regular feeder service on the Trans-Caspian route. Previously, cargo delivery from China to the ports of Black sea took 53 days and now it takes 18 days.
Transportation time has been significantly reduced due to the joint work of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy and Azerbaijan Railways.
A unified digital ecosystem has been created for real-time tracking of cargoes along the route.
The Transport Logistics Center in Xian seeks to increase cargo transportation along the Middle Corridor route to attract new cargoes and promote its development.
