Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:

Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons

Figure 7.1 Eurasian Central Corridor

Source: Comprehensive planning of Eurasian Transport corridors (2017, p. 29).

7.1.2

Corridor objectives and political support

Objectives of transport corridors and main drivers

The major goal of the Central Corridor is to increase the connectivity between Asia and Europe and to

improve the access of landlocked countries in central Asia (UN-ESCAP, 2017). Enhancing the transport

systems of participating countries is achieved by addressing issues related to the connectivity and

interoperability of transport by rail, road, dry ports and their ancillary installations.

The Central Corridor consists of nine routes which are mostly built on existing international transport

cooperation projects, including the China – Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Central Asia Regional

Economic Cooperation (CAREC), Euro-Asian Transport Linkages (EATL), Economic Cooperation

Organization (ECO), International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), Organization for

Cooperation between Railways (OSJD), Intergovernmental Organization for International Carriage by

Rail (OTIF) and the Trans-Caspian Corridor.

hows the extent to which branches of the

Northern Corridor coincide with other corridor projects. While many sub regional transport

agreements exist, governance on the scale of the Eurasian continent is still missing.

Table 7.1 Eurasian Central Corridor Routes and their overlap with existsing cooperation projects

Northern Corridor Routes

Existing international cooperation initiatives

С1: Urumqi – Kashi – Sary-Tash – Dushanbe –

Termez – Bukhara – Atyrau – Astrakhan –

Volgograd – Moscow – Europe;

CAREC, EATL, ECO, INSTC, OSJD, TRACECA

C1A: Kashi – Islamabad – Lahore – Rohri;

CAREC, CPEC, ECO

C1B: Dushanbe – Shirkhan – Kabul – Kandahar –

Quetta – Panjgur – Gwadar;

CAREC, CPEC, EATL, ECO

C1C: Astrakhan – Baku – Qazvin

EATL, ECO, CAREC, INSTC, OSJD

C1D/C2B: Beyneu – Aktau – Baku/Alat.

CAREC, EATL, ECO, OSJD, TRACECA, Trans-

Caspian Corridor