4000 km Railway corridor will cover China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey-Europe
Ashgabat
Leaders of the railway administrations of the member states of the multimodal transport-transit route “ATR/China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey-Europe” (CASCA+) have signed a Protocol at a six-party meeting taking place in Ashgabat, Orient.tm reports.
Delegations from relevant ministries, as well as logistics companies and enterprises from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, participated in the event.
The main theme of the meeting was to strengthen international cooperation between logistics structures, activate the CASCA+ transport corridor, and exchange experiences among participating countries to realize the transport potential in road, sea, rail, and air transport.
Currently, the CASCA+ transport corridor covers three regions: Central Asia – Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan; South Caucasus – Azerbaijan and Georgia; and Anatolia – Turkey. CASCA is the abbreviated name for these regions in English (Central Asia, South Caucasus, and Anatolia). The “+” sign in the route’s name indicates a readiness to accept new potential participants interested in transportation along the route, with the ultimate goal of connecting Southeast Asian countries, particularly China, with Europe.
One of the main goals of the route is to ensure transport connectivity between the countries of Central Asia and Europe. A significant event in this context was the container block train from Uzbekistan to Bulgaria, consisting of 46 wagons and 91 units of 20-ft containers. It was sent by the countries of the route in December 2022 and traveled the “Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Bulgaria/Europe” route covering more than 4000 km. The main task is to have such container trains regularly operating on this route. The operators’ goal is to increase the volume of container shipments to 30 thousand containers per year.
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Courtesy: Central Asian Light (Posted on November 16, 2023)
