Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
165
Corridor capacity
As discussed previously, maritime transport is one of the main transport modes on the
corridor. Bandar Abbas as the main port has a capacity of 80 million TEUs per year. Iran has
the potential to attract 100 million tons of transit sea cargos per year (in different classes). But
currently only 10% of this potential is utilized.
In terms of road transport, the quality of roads on the Iranian section is excellent and well
maintained with 4 lanes on each side. On some road sections, there are separate lanes for
commercial and private vehicles (FFFAI, 2014).
Once INSTC will be fully aligned and operational, a long list of missing links will have been
“bridged”. ists the major recent and ongoing investments on INSTC. Export Import
Bank of India has expressed interest in financing projects in the infrastructure sector and joint
ventures involving Indian companies to improve the prospects of INSTC.
Table 60: Investments on INSTC
Location Type of
infra-
structure
Total
investment
(in USD)
Project description
Baku
(Azerbaijan)
–Yalama
(Azerbaijan)
Rail and
Road
200 million Azerbaijan invests approximately USD 200 million in rail and
in road infrastructure in order to close missing links Baku-
Yalama railway line, approximately 200 km along the Caspian
coast, on the border with Russia82
Qazvin (Iran)
- Rasht (Iran)
- Astara
(Azerbaijan/
Iran)
Rail 1,100 million Missing link Qazvin (Iran) - Rasht (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan)
rail connection has almost been completed, including 22 new
tunnels and 15 bridges. 83 The Rasht (Iran) - Astara
(Azerbaijan) section of the railway project (164 km along the
Caspian coast) requires an investment of US$ 1.1 billion, with
a USD 500 million loan from Azeri banks and an option of
Russia’s participation in financing the project.84 The Qazvin
(Iran) - Rasht (Iran) section of the rail route (41 km) is
expected to be completed by the summer of 201785
Astara
(Azerbaijan/
Iran)
Sea Port 22 million Iran has invested USD 22 million in the Astara port (joint
venture between a private company and Iran State port and
maritime organization). The capacity is 600,000 tons, with
the ambition to increase this to 3 million tons. The port has
been integrated with the INSTC to improve its maritime
connectivity across the Caspian Sea. 86
Source: Compiled from various sources.
82 ADB: Feasibility study of North-South Corridor project to be ready by late 2017, 17 May 2017 in Azernews
83 Rouhani Pushes INSTC in Baku, in Financial Tribune, August 08, 2016
84 Railroad Connecting Iran, Azerbaijan Comes into Operation, in Iran Business News 6 March 2017, -
85 Iran likely to launch Qazvin-Rasht railway in summer, in Trend News Agency 4 May 2017 17:14 (UTC+04:00)
86 North-South corridor to reduce cargo delivery period in Azeri News 13 January 2016,
n