BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) CJSC briefed European logistics companies about the new opportunities created by the Middle Corridor at the European Silk Road Summit in Vienna, TurkicWorld reports via the CJSC's statement.
The event speaker, ADY Chairman’s Advisor Emil Mammadov, took the stage to shed light on the Middle Corridor, highlighting Azerbaijan's pivotal role in its growth and the blossoming of regional and international cooperation at ADY to ramp up the volume of transit freight transportation.
He emphasized the importance of integrating the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway line to unlock the potential of the Middle Corridor. It was pointed out that the BTK offers a shorter and faster route for the effective transportation of transit and export cargoes from China to Europe, with an annual capacity of five million tons.
Mammadov pointed out that European logistics operators and freight forwarding companies could take advantage of new opportunities for regional transport by intensifying the use of the Middle Corridor.
The official also briefed the participants on the establishment of a cargo base that will move from the West to the East, the potential for transporting goods via the Middle Corridor through Türkiye and the BTK, and the work that ADY is doing in this direction.
Speaking about ADY's development of the Middle Corridor, he emphasized the completion of the BTK's modernization last year and the creation of a joint venture with the Georgian side for the route's efficient operation.
He also mentioned the establishment of another joint venture between Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan for the Middle Corridor's development.
The official said that ADY launched the first export block train from Azerbaijan to China this month, giving an additional boost to the development of the Middle Corridor.
He claims that the export block train, which consists of 62 units of 40-foot containers, will transport cargo from Azerbaijan to China via Kazakhstan to the port of Xi'an, one of the country's largest land ports, by the end of this year.
Furthermore, he drove home that, with the participation of railway organizations from Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Central Asia, and Europe, a consultative meeting of railway administrations' leaders was held in Baku this year to establish the Eurasian Transport Route International Association involving the Austrian Transport Route.
Mammadov concluded that the main goal of the new route is to increase freight turnover by revitalizing the southern branch of the Middle Corridor.
