Azerbaijan’s location at the crossroads of Asia and Europe further increases its importance along both the East-West and North-South corridors. Our railway connections, by making a special contribution to the development of these corridors, hold a unique place in Eurasia’s overall logistics chain, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC (ADY) Rovshan Rustamov said at an international conference on “The Role of Ports in Regional Connectivity and Strategic Cooperation,” held within the framework of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), APA-Economics reports.
According to him, investments in railways, ports, and international partnerships serve this purpose. Our advantage lies in connecting markets and providing our partners with reliable access to those markets: “It is precisely for this reason that, thanks to the strategic vision of President Ilham Aliyev, the Port of Baku and Azerbaijan Railways have been integrated under a unified management model. This integration was successfully completed last year. It was not merely an administrative change. This approach removes barriers between rail and maritime transport and makes it possible to increase operational efficiency, improve coordination and transport cargo faster. Our goal is to further increase the port’s handling capacity. To this end, work on the second phase of the development of the Port of Baku is continuing. In addition to the current annual cargo handling capacity of 15 million tonnes, an additional capacity of 10 million tonnes is planned,” he said.
Rovshan Rustamov noted that they are currently working intensively to expand container handling capabilities: “As you know, the Port of Baku’s annual container handling capacity was designed for 100,000 TEUs. Last year, following the integration, we increased this figure to 150,000 TEUs through operational efficiency, and by the end of this year it will reach 200,000 TEUs. Our target is to increase the handling capacity to approximately 300,000 TEUs by the end of 2027. This will also make an additional contribution to the overall capacity of the Middle Corridor. However, our sector also faces common challenges. The decline in the water level of the Caspian Sea raises serious questions for shipping and access to ports. At the same time, tensions and conflicts along international trade routes make close coordination among ports even more important,” he said.
The ADY chairman emphasized that this is precisely why holding a conference of port executives within the framework of CICA is of great importance.
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