India, Russia, Iran to meet on North-South Corridor
Baku, October 31, AZERTAC
India, Russia and Iran will hold a trilateral meeting on the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) on November 23 to make the 7,200-km-long ship, road, and rail route operational soon, according to NDTV, an Indian television media company.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu held a meeting with a Russian business delegation on raising investments and business between the two countries on Saturday, where he said "all issues may be resolved in order to operationalize the route as early as possible".
Mr Prabhu informed that the corridor is an important initiative taken by India, Russia and Iran to promote transport cooperation and to enhance connectivity with central Asian countries.
The foundation of the North-South Transport Corridor was laid on the basis of the intergovernmental agreement signed between Russia, Iran and India on September 12, 2000. Azerbaijan joined this agreement in 2005. 7,200-km-long International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe. The route primarily involves moving freight from India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia via ship, rail and road.
Azerbaijan is heavily involved in the project currently building new train lines and roads to complete missing links in the INSTC. The INSTC route through Azerbaijan allows India-Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia-Kazakhstan transport connectivity.
The aim of the Corridor is to reduce the delivery time of loads from India to Russia, as well as to Northern and Western Europe (at present delivery time on this route is over 6 weeks, it is expected to be 3 weeks via North-South).
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