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Russia expands North-South trade route

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW NOV. 7. Russia is working hard to increase traffic along the North-South transport corridor, a Russian Minister said.

In addition to a container terminal in the Caspian Sea port of Olya opened last month, Russia is building an even bigger terminal in Makhachkala. The Olya Port terminal near Astrakhan can handle 20,000 TEU containers per year, whereas the Makhachkala Port will be able to handle 30,000 TEU containers by the end of the current year, the Deputy Transportation Minister, Chinghiz Izmailov, said.

Both terminals are part of an ambitious project launched by Russia, India and Iran three years ago to build a sea-and-land transport route from Asia to Europe. Goods leaving Cochin and Mumbai are shipped through the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, where they are loaded onto trucks and trains and hauled to Anzali, Iran's port on the Caspian Sea, then carried by sea to Russian ports, where goods are fanned out to their destinations in Russia and Western Europe.

Russia is also building a 50-km railway that will link the Caspian Port of Olya with the national rail network by 2005. To encourage cargo carriers to use the Olya facilities the Russian Government has cut port calling tarrifs by 45 per cent, Mr. Izmailov said.

"Much depends now on the activity of Indian and Russian trade partners," the Deputy Transportation Minister told The Hindu in the run-up to the Prime Minister, A. B. Vajpayee' visit to Russia next week. He urged the two countries to set up a joint carrier company to operate the route. "It would obviously make sense if Indian and Russian companies give thought to establishing an international consortium for container shipment along the North-South Transport Corridor."

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