Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan eye cargo transportations through Kuryk port

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan discussed the organization of cargo transportation from Uzbekistan through Kazakh port of Kuryk in the Caspian Sea.
The issue was discussed at a meeting of the head of national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, Kanat Alpysbayev, and the Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister — Chairman of the Board of the Uzbek railway company Uzbekiston Temir Yullari, Achilbay Ramatov, in Tashkent.
Cargo can be delivered to the ports of Azerbaijan, Russia from the Kuryk port.
«Currently, work is underway to expand the range of goods transported through the port of Kuryk, and first of all, exports of goods from Kazakhstan are being processed. Opportunities for the return transportation of transit cargo in the direction of Uzbekistan are being worked out. For example, raw sugar. Volumes are now being discussed. We are talking about 150,000-200,000 tons before the end of the year,» Alpysbaev said.
During the meeting, issues of further development of cooperation in the field of railway transport were also mulled
The parties discussed issues of flexible tariff policy, increase of cargo transportation along the Trans-Caspian international transport route, organization of container trains and deliveries of Kazakhstan railway engineering products to Uzbekistan.
Later, an agreement on the electronic exchange of data on goods imported to Kazakhstan was signed.
Moreover, an agreement was reached on the timely transportation of Uzbek fruits and vegetables to Kazakhstan and Russia.
The Kuryk port with a total area of 40 hectares is located on the Trans-Caspian international transport route (TITR), which is of great importance for handling the cargo going via this route.
TITR, which is created to provide transport connections between the East and West of Eurasia, runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then to Europe via Turkey and Ukraine. The route was launched in October 2013. About 300,000-400,000 containers are expected to be transported via the Trans-Caspian international transport route by 2020.
Cargo transportation by rail between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan amounted to 7.554 million tons in January-June 2017, which is 4 percent more than in the same period of 2016, according to Kazakhstan Temir Zholy.
As many as 156 container trains went from China to Uzbekistan through the territory of Kazakhstan in the first half of this year, while last year, only a total of 110 container trains went