Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
104
of Karamyk to international transit traffic cause the round-about diversion of trucks from
People’s Republic of China going to Tajikistan that have to travel an additional 300 km. Afghan
exports cannot be transported by trains across Hairatan, but need to be loaded onto barges
and ferried across the Amu Darya River, resulting in delays and higher costs. The formation of
Eurasian Economic Union has re-shaped borders between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic.
Performance of corridors 3a and 3b are also compared. CPMM data shows that while average
border crossing time and cost are higher in 3a, 3b suffered from the high vehicle operating
cost. There is no clear winner to determine which route is superior, but the removal of those
non-physical barriers described earlier could result in significant improvements in transit
trade for the region.
Table 25: Duration and cost of activities spent on BCPs on CAREC Corridor 3 in 2015
Activities TFI1 (average in hours) TFI2 (average in $)
Corridor 3 Overall
(CAREC)
Corridor 3 Overall
(CAREC)
A. Border Security / Control 0.5 0.4 19 20
B. Customs Clearance 1.4 6.4 28 106
C. Health / Quarantine 0.2 0.4 9 22
D. Phytosanitary 0.4 0.3 11 10
E. Veterinary Inspection 0.3 0.3 10 9
F. Visa/ Immigration 0.2 0.2 13 22
G. GAI/ Traffic Inspection 0.2 0.2 9 7
H. Police Checkpoint/ Stop 0.3 0.2 5 6
İ. Transport Inspection 0.4 0.4 17 16
J. Weight/ Standard Inspection 0.5 0.4 15 19
K. Vehicle Registration 0.5 0.4 6 6
L. Emergency Repair - 1.3 - -
M. Escort/ Convoy - 1.0 - 51
N. Loading/ Unloading 3.7 2.2 - 106
O. Road Toll 0.7 0.4 167 50
P. Waiting/ Queue 5.1 5.0 - 5
Source: (CAREC, 2015).
At BCPs, a truck driver has to go through each activity sequentially. Waiting in queue is the
most time-consuming activity, followed by loading/unloading and customs clearance. The
remaining activities are completed in less than an hour. Despite these, corridor 3 performs
quite well if when its figures compared with the overall figures for CAREC. The only outlier is
the road toll cost. In Turkmenistan for example, truck operators are required to pay a $160 toll
for using Turkmen roads. The following graphs show all TFIs for corridor 3.