It was decided to increase container transportation along the Caspian Sea from 2025

Starting from 2025, Russia will increase system container transportation along the "river - sea" corridor through the Caspian Sea. As "Izvestia" found out, this was announced by Evgeny Dietrich, General Director of the "State Transport Leasing Company" (STLC), at the meeting of the Council for the Development of the Transportation Complex under the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation. This direction will take the flow of cargoes that do not have time to be exported through the railroads of the eastern direction.

Transportation via the Caspian Sea is 54% more economical compared to railroads, said the General Director of GTLC. Transportation infrastructure will be developed to increase the capacity of the corridor.

For cargo transportation, GTLC is creating a fleet of specialized vessels of the Volgo-Don Max class. The Lotos Shipyard in the Astrakhan Region plans to launch four container ships of Project 00108 in 2025, and their number will reach 25 by 2030. The Volgo-Don Max class vessels are capable of carrying 429 TEU (equivalent volume of a 20-foot container) on the river and up to 531 TEU at sea.

Vadim Filatov, president of the AvtoGruzEx Association, told Izvestia that the Caspian route is part of the North-South International Transport Corridor (ITC) and allows reducing the delivery time between Russia and South Asian countries by 10-50%. The connection with China via Iran and the Indian Ocean is more relevant for the organization of multimodal deliveries to Russia from the Persian Gulf countries and India. The transportation corridor will connect the railway and river systems with the seaport of Bandar Abbas in the south of Iran. Further cargoes can be transported to India or China by ocean-going vessels.

Read more in the exclusive material of Izvestia:

Vessels are coming: container transportation along the Caspian Sea is planned to increase from 2025