Baku: Ports and stakeholders should promptly address capacity and quality issues in order to achieve sustainable freight flows through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor), Khudayar Hasanli, Advisor to the Director of Baku International Sea Trade Port LLC, owned by Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, said at an international conference on ‘The Role of Ports in Regional Connectivity and Strategic Cooperation,’ held in Baku within the framework of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), APA-Economics reports.
According to Azeri-Press news agency, Khudayar Hasanli highlighted that the main challenges along the Middle Corridor are concentrated in railways, container supply, fleet, and coordination. Hasanli emphasized the need for a single transit operator to improve efficiency and transparency in the region.
Hasanli suggested that creating a single transit operator, similar to the UTLC model, along with a joint IT platform among the customs committees of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, could enhance operations. Issues such as the limited capacity of the one-way access channel and the 40-day winter navigation period each year need to be addressed. Widening the channel and establishing a joint IT platform for scheduling fleet operations with shipping companies would help mitigate these challenges.