Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
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In terms of legal liability, damages of cargo that passing through INSTC within Iran are well
documented and well monitored. According to the Iranian Railways, for rail transport, the
current figures are very low. In the past 10 years, there are only 5 damages registered. This is
much lower than in the road transport, thanks to the fact that the rail transport is more stable
because it involves the governments on the higher levels. In the road transport, there are many
parties involved, such as truck companies and freight forwarders. Hence, the coordination is
more complicated.
In terms of cargo insurances, due to the international sanction, the Iranian government has an
agreement with an Iranian insurance company to insure all the transit cargos that passing
through Iran. This is the strategy to ensure the convenience and comfort of the users. Transit
insurance is usually 1% of cargo value.
Three important private sectors with whom the Iranian Railways has agreements are Tarkib
Haml-o-Naghl (Iran), ADY Express (Azerbaijan), and RZD (Russia).
4.7.7. Technical and Operational Factors
Interoperability
Interoperability issues in railway exist along the corridor, e.g. between Iran, Turkmenistan,
Azerbaijan, and Russia, due to the gauge difference. The rail gauge in Iran is 1,432 mm, while
that in the CIS countries is wider (at least 1,435 mm). Along the INSTC, there is only one
gauge change needed.
In terms of road transport, the INSTC countries are members of TIR. As such no
interoperability problem is observed (Abutalebpour, 2017).
Mode share
The main transport modes used on the corridor are maritime and road transport. The current
mode share of railway is very low, less than 10% ≈ 40,000 ton per year (Abutalebpour, 2017).
The Secretariat does not expect that this will be increasing in the near future. The low
competitiveness of the rail transport is among others caused by the followings:
1. The absence of a fixed schedule. Movements are only arranged when there is a
sufficient amount of containers at Bandar Abbas.
2. Longer transit time. A rail journey from Bandar Abbas to Amirabad, for example, takes
5-6 days (due to the steep gradient along the route), whereas a road journey takes 2-3
days.
3. Missing rail link Rasht – Astara. Due to this missing link, it is currently not possible to
have a through rail connection between Bandar Abbas, Baku, and further to Russia.
When this gap is closed, the transit time will be further decreased.