According to several media reports including APA and Qafqazinfo of Azerbaijan, the first container train from Uzbekistan has crossed the Caspian Sea.
The crossing, from the Turkmenbashi Port of Turkmenistan to the Baku Port of Azerbaijan was made with the help of the feeder ship Balkan.
MV Balkan is part of the Turkmen maritime fleet. Under an arrangement agreed upon in April 2020, it is operated jointly by the JSC Transport and Logistics Center of Turkmenistan (TULM) and a subsidiary of CJSC Azerbaijan Railways, (AZD) LLC ADY Container.
It has the capacity to carry 120 containers.
The train, carrying copper concentrate in 91 containers of 20 feet each is destined for the Bulgarian port Burgas.
The length of the journey is 4000km from Uzbekistan to Bulgaria.
This is a test train for the CASCA+ route, a multimodal route China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey-Europe. It is a joint initiative of the railway institutions of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
The joint operators of this route are: “Oztemiryolkonteyner” AC (Uzbekistan), TULM OJSC (Turkmenistan), “ADY Konteyner” LLC (Azerbaijan) and “GR Logistics and Terminals” (Georgia). /// nCa, 27 December 2022 [Pictures credit APA]