28 June 2022	The on-line newspaper devoted to the world of transports	07:50 GMT+2

June 3, 2022 This page has been automatically translated by Original news The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route is establishing itself as the main land corridor for transport China-Europe A doubling of traffic is expected this year containerized The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is impressing a remarkable impulse to the development of the so-called Middle Corridor, the corridor International Trans-Caspian Intermodal (TITR) connecting the Southeast Asia and China with Europe crossing Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and, from there, Turkey or the Black Sea. However, this is a development that has been underway since time, given that last year through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route has passed through a traffic containerized equal to 25,200 teu, with a significant increase in +20% on 2020, while in 2022 traffic is expected total of 3.2 million tonnes, six times the one transited in 2021, and a containerized traffic equal to 50,000 teu. May the war still give impetus to this corridor of traffic is evidenced by the significant increase in activity of the Caspian ports of Aktau and Kuryk, in the Kazakh region of Mangystau, where last Tuesday the group Kazakh Railway Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) organized a meeting with the press dedicated to infrastructure projects for the development of the corridor. If in February in the port of Aktau traffic of the containers had been equal to 1,657 teu, in the following April the volume has doubled rising to 3,099 teu. Particularly important for the western part of the corridor crossing Turkey was completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line that has become operational on 30 October 2017 ( of 31 October 2017). A line on which, he said in recent days the Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Adil Karaismailoglu, the goal is to move 1,500 trains there block per year and reduce travel time between China to Turkey from 12 to 10 days. Referring to developments determined by the Russia-Ukraine war, the minister highlighted that the Central Corridor has become an alternative important in terms of distance and time from the Corridor North, crossing Russia: "a departing freight train from China to Europe - karaismailoglu underlined - if follows the Central Corridor and Turkey covers 7 thousand kilometers in 12 days. If the same train prefers the commercial route northern Russian, the distance to travel is 10 thousand kilometers and the travel time is at least 15 days. If the same cargo chooses the Southern Corridor and the ship, it can travel 20 thousand kilometers through the Suez Canal and reach Europe in 45-60 days. Also these figures - it has detected the minister - reveal how advantageous and safe the Central Corridor in world trade between Asia and Europe'. Index Home Page News - Via Raffaele Paolucci 17r/19r - 16129 Genoa - ITALY phone: +39.010.2462122, fax: +39.010.2516768, e-mail