China Seeks to Join JV With Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Georgian Railways to Develop Trans-Caspian Route
Interfax.ru. China has announced plans to join Middle Corridor Multimodal Ltd., a joint venture formed by the railway operators of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia to develop a multimodal service on the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR).
The announcement was made at a meeting between Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) head Rovshan Rustamov and China Railway deputy CEO Sun Suyude and the delegation he led, ADY reported.
They discussed China subsidizing transit railway shipments of freight through Azerbaijan in order to increase the number of container trains, using the potential of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, and simplifying declaration of freight shipped by block trains along the TITR.
The TITR runs through China, Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and on to Turkey and European countries.
The railway operators of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia signed an agreement to form the equally owned joint venture Middle Corridor Multimodal Ltd. in October 2023. The venture is supposed to provide a “single window” service, guarantee delivery times and implement a coordinated policy to develop a multimodal service along the China-Europe/Turkey-China route. It was previously forecast that the venture will make it possible to reduce freight delivery times between China and Europe to 10-15 days.
