BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 19. Iran has set an ambitious goal: to increase cargo transit along the eastern branch of the North-South International Transport Corridor (ITC) in 2024 threefold compared to 2023, Trend reports.
“Already in 2024, cargo turnover along the eastern branch of the North-South ITC may reach two million tons against 650,000 tons in 2023,” the media outlet quoted Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali as saying.
The eastern branch of the ITC covers Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. In general, according to Jalali, the eastern branch of the North-South corridor has a capacity of 15 million tons of cargo, and efforts should be made to widely use this potential.
To note, the North-South Corridor has been developing since 2000 with the participation of 14 countries. The corridor includes such routes as the line along the western coast of the Caspian Sea (from the Russian Federation through Azerbaijan to Iran), the eastern branch – along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea through Kazakhstan to Iran, and the branch involving the Caspian ports of the Russian Federation and Iran.