The North-South Transport Corridor will pass through Afghanistan to Pakistan and China

The multimodal North-South route to Iran will be extended by an eastern arm through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan. Then the route will go to the ports of Pakistan or to India. This was announced by the participants of the Coordinating Transport Meeting of the CIS countries within the XVIII International Forum "Transport of Russia" in Moscow on November 19.

Implementation of the plan became possible after joining the transport corridor North - South of Pakistan and signing the relevant agreements on June 6 in Beijing.

At the same time, Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit said at the plenary discussion "CIS Transport Cooperation" that Asian countries are becoming an important link in the routes from Russia to South Asia, as well as to China.

"In Uzbekistan, the railroad is breaking up into several directions, which will expand the transportation accessibility of Central Asian countries with Iran and China. It is planned that the railroad will connect China, the Caspian region and Turkey through Uzbekistan," Ilkhom Mahkamov, Minister of Transportation of the Republic of Uzbekistan, added at the forum.

Thus Uzbekistan is turning into a major logistics hub, the minister said. The plan is scheduled to be launched by the end of 2024.

"As part of the roadmap of the North-South corridor, infrastructure projects worth $5 billion have been developed, expansion and electrification of railway tracks are planned," said Minister of Transport of the Republic of Tajikistan Azim Imbrohim.

In the near future, $6.3 billion from various sources will be attracted to the country's transport infrastructure, the minister added.

"The project will provide a reduction in distance compared to other routes and give a new outlet to China for CIS countries," said Gennady Bessonov, chairman of the executive committee of the Coordinating Transport Meeting of CIS countries.

The reorientation of logistics routes to the East and South also required the expansion of existing transportation corridors, the Trans-Siberian and BAM. In addition, a huge role is assigned to the Northern Sea Route, Starovoit said.

"As part of it, it is planned to create a large multimodal corridor from Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg to Vladivostok," he noted.

Earlier, on September 7, it was reported that in the international transport corridor North - South increased activity. This was stated to "Izvestia" by the Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Dmitry Birichevsky. He noted that new countries could join the project if it would be profitable.