Int'l Consortium Being Established To Develop North-South Transport Corridor - Moscow

An international consortium with the participation of seven countries is being established for the development of the international North-South transport corridor (INSTC), and the legal structure for it is already being registered, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin has told Sputnik

KAZAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2023) An international consortium with the participation of seven countries is being established for the development of the international North-South transport corridor (INSTC), and the legal structure for it is already being registered, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin has told Sputnik.

"We are creating a consortium, and the process of registering its legal structure is underway. The project is interesting to everyone: logistics companies, countries - everyone will attract money. The financial mechanism has been calculated. There are seven parties in the consortium, people have looked at the transport corridors, the trajectories have been approved," Khusnullin said on the sidelines of the 14th International economic forum "Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum."

The official said that Russia "needs a corridor to the south, to the countries of the Middle East and the Indian Ocean." The corridor is planned to link freight traffic by roads and railroads through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan, as well as to integrate communication with Iran and India through the ports in the Caspian Sea and the railroads bordering the Caspian Sea from both sides into the transport corridor.

"One should understand that this would not be one road on which all cargo would be concentrated, but a network of railways and transport routes. Somewhere it will be necessary to expand the existing roads, somewhere - their interconnection. An important issue is the creation of cheap transshipment of cargo. The interest in this project is enormous, and today the discussion of the North-South Corridor was attended by interested parties at the level of ministers and prime ministers of countries. As a result, we estimate that this transport corridor would be comparable to the Suez Canal in terms of freight traffic, and it will reach 100 million tonnes a year. At the first stage, we expect to reach 15-30 million tonnes," Khusnullin noted.

The implementation of projects within the framework of the consortium will most likely require banks' financing, he added.