South and Central Asia get a new trade connectivity
The transnational railway line Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran is involved in the formation of a new trade corridor between South and Central Asia. The first batch of fruit and vegetable products arrived in Astana from Pakistani Lahore via rail line Pakistan-Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan, reported Kazakh mass media. Refrigerated container train loaded with 260 tonnes of tangerines, covered 5 thousand kilometers in just 18 days, that is two and a half times faster than by the traditional 45-day road and marine transportation. Now the train operators are planning the launch of a regular weekly container service. It should be noted that the transport link Pakistan-Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan is rich in terms of the availability of the access to the largest maritime logistics hub, opening the way to the markets in all geographical direction. Among them are the Pakistani deepwater Gwadar port on the Indian ocean; Iranian Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman; multimodal Turkmenbashi International seaport on the Caspian shores.
