North-South transport corridor’s capacity through Kazakhstan to be increased to 10mln tons
By 2027, the capacity of the eastern branch of the North-South International Transport Corridor is planned to be increased to 10 million tons per year. Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin said it at the opening ceremony of the 1st North-South Transport Trade and Export Forum which kicked off in Aktau, Kazinform News Agency learned from the government’s press service.
Serik Zhumangarin noted that the idea of organizing the event originated in April 2024 in Kabul during a trilateral meeting of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan delegations which discussed promising opportunities and existing barriers to transporting goods along the North-South corridor and agreed on the need to develop transparent “rules of the game” to simplify transportation and carriers’ access to infrastructure. The first transport trade and export forum of Kazakhstan is called to become a platform for all countries interested in transportation along the North-South corridor and the development of similar rules.
“Today, the capacity of the eastern branch of the North-South transport corridor through Kazakhstan is 6 million tons. We actively develop railroad infrastructure to raise the capacity of the eastern line to 10 million tons by 2027, and to 20 million tons by 2030. For this, we plan to inject $1.9 billion of investments. A part of these funds will be attracted on preferential terms from the Eurasian Development Bank for financing priority integration and infrastructure projects within the EAEU: modernization of Orsk-Kandyagash-Makat-Beineu-Bolashak and Iletsk-1-Aktobe railroad sections,” Serik Zhumangarin said.
The 1st North-South International Transport Corridor is ongoing in Aktau from July 19 to 20, 2024 bringing together over 440 participants from 12 countries – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Afghanistan, Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, UAE, Iran, Iraq, Oman, Uzbekistan, as well as Economic Cooperation Organization and Eurasian Economic Commission.
