Corridor options explored

In early October this year, when addressing the Fourth International Transport and Logistics Business Forum, New Silk Way in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana, Ilhom Mahkamov, Uzbekistan’s Transport Minister, emphasised “the growing importance of multimodal transport corridors in facilitating international trade, fostering regional connectivity and addressing the evolving needs of the global logistics landscape”.

According to him, his country has been taking practical steps in both developing existing and forming new transport schemes. In particular, Tashkent has been promoting creation of a new route that would connect landlocked Central Asian nations, including Uzbekistan, with the Indian Ocean.

Building a 570-km-long railway from the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan (close to the Uzbek border) to its capital of Kabul and then to Peshawar in north-western Pakistan would be the project’s main part (the so-called Kabul Corridor).

Once linked with Pakistan’s internal rail network in 2027, it would provide the Central Asian countries with access to the ports of Karachi and Gwadar. By as soon as 2030, the Kabul Corridor would be able to reach an annual carrying capacity of up to 15 million tonnes of various cargoes, according to Mahkamov.

Being the shortest and cheapest possible way from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea and thus the Indian Ocean, the new route would reduce the cargo delivery time between Uzbekistan and the Pakistani harbours from over a month to just five days, while halving the relevant transportation costs.

In 2021, the Trans-Afghan route saw the launch of freight haulage, which more than doubled last year, reaching 670,000 tonnes. By the end of 2023, transit motor traffic is expected to exceed one million tonnes.

Alongside its undoubted advantages, however, the Kabul Corridor does have its weak points. Realising a rail passage through the Afghan mountainous terrain requires immense investments (up to US$8.2 billion). There is also the troubling political and economic situation in Afghanistan which leaves a lot to be desired.

UNIQUE POSITION
Situated in the very heart of Central Asia, Uzbekistan is one of just two double landlocked (surrounded by other landlocked states) countries in the world. Such a unique geographical location, coupled with the nation’s rapidly growing population (around 35 million or nearly half the region’s total), has stimulated Tashkent to find ways to secure its access to global markets since obtaining independence (after the break-up of the USSR) in 1991.

Traditionally, Uzbekistan had used the north-western transport routes (via Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus or Ukraine) to deliver its exports to western markets. However, Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year and the resulting sanctions against the Kremlin have made the usage of them extremely complicated or even impossible. Under the circumstances, Tashkent has been compelled to establish new trade ties and diversify its export and import channels.

Specifically, Uzbekistan’s official Strategy for the development of its transport sector by 2035 has designated the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR or the Middle Corridor), which is intended to connect the Central Asian states with those of the South Caucasus and then (through the Black Sea) Europe, as one of its top priorities.

Last year, Uzbekistan exploited the 4000km-long Middle Corridor for multimodal deliveries of its containerised copper concentrate to Bulgaria and containerised fertilisers to Romania.

The same year, Tashkent’s overall export and import traffic through Azerbaijan’s Caspian port of Baku and those of Poti and Batum on Georgia’s Black Sea shore expanded to 904,000 tonnes (up 65 per cent on 2021) and 864,000 tonnes (up 72 per cent on 2021) respectively. In 2023, each of the figures is expected to grow to at least 1.5 million tonnes, according to Abdulla Oripov, Uzbekistan’s Prime Minister.

To further capitalise on the TITR, Tashkent has agreed with the Azerbaijani and Georgian authorities to develop its own handling and storage facilities at the two countries’ harbours. Further, the landlocked Central Asian nation’s ambitions also extend to building and operating (together with Azerbaijan) a dedicated merchant fleet for deployment on the Caspian Sea.

In June this year, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President, Uzbekistan, paid his state’s first official visit to Iran for 20 years. As a result, Tashkent has now been in talks with Tehran over a new transport route, which would run from Uzbekistan (via Turkmenistan) to Iran’s southern coast and then further to either Oman or India.

This project’s soft spots are the Iranian ports of Bandar-Abbas and Chabahar. While the former remains under western economic sanctions, the latter is a relatively new harbour, which is yet to see fully-fledged development. For example, Tehran will have to complete the construction (about half the total length) of a 630 km-long rail line to connect Chabahar with the international railway network at the city of Zahedan.