The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines has opened offices in different parts of India to boost its activities in the International North-South Transportation Corridor.
IRISL will ship exports from eastern India, which are transported by rail, to its western ports. It is strengthening its activities in India, INSTC and Russia.
Following negotiations with the Indian Railway, Indian manufacturers and traders are planning to deliver their exports from Kolkata in eastern India through the corridor to Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States using the IRISL fleet, Otaghiranonline.ir reported.
As the Indian government and businesspeople are eager to expand their ties with Russia, the CIS countries and Iran through the north-south corridor, IRISL has been offering regular transportation services for months; it has launched container shipping from the western ports of India to the southern ports of Iran.
Executive and marketing moves have been taken to strengthen and develop cooperation with Indians for the transportation of its exports and imports to Russia and the CIS.
INSTC is the best route for the transportation of goods between India and Russia; the transit time is between 20 and 25 days, compared with the transportation through the Suez Canal to Russia and Central Asian countries, which takes between 40 and 50 days.
In fact, no other route can compete with INSTC in terms of transit time and transportation costs to access the Russian and CIS markets. In addition, IRISL plans to reduce the transit time between India and Russia to 15 days.
The Iranian shipping line has also taken effective measures in recent months to strengthen its activities in the north-south corridor by investing in the Russian port of Solyanka on the coast of the Caspian Sea.
From Mumbai to Helsinki
INSTC is a major transit route designed to facilitate the transportation of goods from Mumbai in India to Helsinki in Finland, using Iranian ports and railroads, which the Islamic Republic plans to connect to those of Azerbaijan and Russia.
The corridor connects Iran with Russia’s Baltic ports and gives Russia rail connectivity to both the Persian Gulf and the Indian rail network.
This means goods can be carried from Mumbai to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and further to Baku. They could then pass across the Russian border into Astrakhan before proceeding to Moscow and St. Petersburg, before entering Europe.
INSTC would substantially cut the travel time for everything from Asian consumer goods to Central Eurasia’s natural resources to advanced European exports.
Armenia and Iran are implementing projects of regional significance, including the geopolitically important project connecting the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea.
Iran and Russia have agreed on details of their plan to transit 10 million tons of goods through the International North-South Transportation Corridor.
The agreement was reached during a meeting of the two sides’ transportation officials in Moscow on June 28-29.
IRISL earlier piloted the multimodal transit of cargo along INSTC for carrying goods from Russia to India, according to the head of Solyanka Port in Russia’s city of Astrakhan.
Solyanka is one of the 15 ports located in Astrakhan’s Economic Zone and is considered the busiest of them all. Some 53% of Solyanka Port’s shares belong to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.
Astrakhan Port is a hub for commercial activities of nearly 200 Iranian firms, making the port the largest center of Iranians’ economic activities in Russia.
IRISL, the biggest player in Iran’s transportation sector, says it has invested $10 million in Solyanka Port.
Iran, India Put in Place Digital Tool to Push Trade
India and Iran recently successfully concluded the first pilot of a fully digital intermodal TIR transport (international customs transit system) to push trade via the International North-South Transportation Corridor between India and Russia.
The container was released less than a day after arriving at Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port, which would have otherwise taken up to five days. The project was completed with the support of Indian and Iranian customs authorities, the Indian English-language business daily The Economic Times reported on Monday.
TIR is the only global transit system. It enables goods to be shipped from the country of origin, through transit countries, to a country of destination in sealed wagons that are controlled by customs via a multilateral, mutually recognized system. It is the easiest, safest and most reliable way to move goods across multiple international borders, saving time and money for transport operators and customs authorities. The pilot project demonstrated the efficiency of a fully intermodal TIR transport.
An electronic guarantee was issued instead of a TIR carnet, and all messages, such as the pre-declaration, were exchanged electronically in advance with relevant public and private actors, including customs authorities, which expedited the customs and port procedures.
INSTC has been facilitating a higher volume of trade between India and Russia via Iran amid Western sanctions on Moscow after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The 7,200-km network of highways, sea and rail routes under INSTC offers the shortest connectivity route between Russia and India. It also reduces the carriage cost between the two nations by about 30%.
At present, most of the commodities transported through Iran along this route are shipments between Russia and India. Iran shipping lines had formed an operational working group for the development of transportation along INSTC in early April.
INSTC links the Indian Ocean to the Caspian Sea via the Persian Gulf to Russia and Northern Europe, and offers the shortest connectivity route.
There are also plans to link the northern route via the Russian Arctic with INSTC for transportation of goods.
The foundation of the transportation corridor was laid on Sept. 12, 2000, in accordance with an intergovernmental agreement signed among Russia, Iran and India. Azerbaijan joined this agreement in 2005. This agreement was ratified by 13 countries (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Armenia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Ukraine).
The project has a number of components: Northern and Western Europe-Russian Federation, Caucasus-Persian Gulf (western route); Central Asia-Persian Gulf (eastern route); and Caspian Sea-Iran-Persian Gulf (central route).
Source: Hellenic Shipping News
