Kazakhstan Reduces Freight Transit Time by Half via Trans-Caspian International Transport Route

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Kazakhstan’s efforts to promote the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) enabled the country to halve the cargo transit time from 12 to 6 days. This was announced at a government meeting on TITR’s development, chaired by Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov on March 2.

Photo credit: Shark Group

The cargo delivery time from China to the Black Sea ports will be reduced to 14-18 days this year.

The time will be further reduced to five days by the year’s end.

Thanks to the work conducted by the TITR participating countries to eliminate bottlenecks on the route and introduce tariffs and other measures, the delivery time of goods from China to the Black Sea ports in Georgia has decreased from 38-53 to 19-23 days. By the end of the year, the time is expected to be shortened to 14-18 days.

The meeting participants also discussed measures to modernize the country’s railway infrastructure, upgrade the rolling stock fleet, and expand the merchant fleet and the capacities of the Aktau and Kuryk seaports.

Ten oil barges, eight ferries, six tankers, and a container ship, all of them procured by Kazakhstan, are expected to start operating in the Caspian Sea by 2030.

Following the meeting, Smailov also urged to accelerate the approval procedures of an agreement between Kazakhstan and China on the TITR development, which is to simplify customs procedures and approve guaranteed traffic volumes on the route.

Source: The Astana Times