ASTANA (TCA) — The first container train on the route Lodz (Poland) – Chandu (China) has passed through Kazakhstan’s Altynkol station at the border with China. The train of 41 forty-foot containers was processed in the Dry port of the SEZ Khorgos – Eastern Gate on the Kazakh-Chinese border, the press office of Kazakhstan’s national railways company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) said.
“Through the Kazakhstan station of Altynkol, a container train from Poland to China will travel regularly,” says A. Karimov, director of the Container Transportation Department of KTZ Express JSC, adding that “the reorientation of cargo flows from the interstate point of the Dostyk-Alashankou crossing to Altynkol-Khorgos increases the speed of processing of trains coming from a narrow railway track (1435 mm) to a wide track (1520 mm), including customs clearance.”
According to Karimov, the entire infrastructure of the Dry Port of the SEZ Khorgos – Eastern Gate and Altynkol station are ready to handle a large cargo flow in the direction of China-Europe-China.
The development of international cargo flows through the SEZ Khorgos-Eastern Gate, the availability of competitive transport products will ensure the expansion of the geography of transportation along international transport corridors passing through Kazakhstan.
In 2017, 201 thousand TEU were transported through Kazakhstan in the direction of China-Europe-China. In 2018 it is planned to reach the level of 346 thousand TEU.
