ASTANA (TCA) — Members of International Association “Trans-Caspian International Transport Route” (TITR) held a General Meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan on December 6 to discuss the development of container traffic along the TITR, the launch of a regular container train in 2018, and increasing the competitiveness of TITR tariff rates next year, the press-office of Kazakhstan’s national railways company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) said.
Chairman of the Management Board of International Association “Trans-Caspian International Transport Route” and the head of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, Kanat Alpysbaev, said that by the end of this year, the volume of traffic along the route will reach about 1.2 million tons instead of the planned 700 thousand tons.
“For further development of the route, competitive tariffs approved by all TITR participants should be retained for a longer period,” he said, stressing that “new opportunities for growth of transportation along the route are connected with the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and the launch of the automobile component of the ferry complex of Kuryk port” on Kazakhstan’s Caspian coast.
“This will give a big cargo traffic and to strengthen the volumes of these facilities, it is necessary to strengthen joint work with Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Turkish partners. The Kazakh side will make every effort to help increase cargo flows, including by reducing the delivery time of cargoes to 14-15 days,” Alpysbaev said, suggesting signing a roadmap to achieve that the terms of delivery of goods along the route be no more than 15 days.
According to Alpysbaev, to attract cargo traffic to the route, it is also necessary to launch regular container trains, at least 2 times a month, in the direction of China-Turkey/Georgia.
