First container train from Kazakhstan arrives in Turkey

ASTANA. KAZINFORM The first container train has arrived in Mersin, Turkey, from Kokshetau station in Kazakhstan within the start-up of a new railway line of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, Kazinform refers to JSC "Kazakhstan Temir Zholy" National Company's press service.

"The liner train with grain consisting of 30 twenty-foot containers owned by Kazakhstan Temir Zholy and loaded into Azerbaijan Railways' carriages covered 5,435 km within 10 days," the statement reads.

The train route ran through the Kuryk port-Alat port ferry line in the Caspian Sea. Besides, the cargoes were transferred from broad gauge carriages to narrow gauge ones at the new Georgian-Turkish border crossing of Akhalalaki-Kars.

"Successful implementation of the project is possible thanks to concerted efforts of all the parties concerned: railway, port, and maritime administrations, logistics companies, which are the participants of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route,"  Almat Karimov, the Director of the Container Transportation Department of "KTZ Express" JSC was quoted as saying by the company's press service.

"The potential of the new route is 10 million tons of cargoes per year. In the near future, the next freight shipment will be transported," Mr. Karimov said, stressing that launching the routes with the use of multimodal solutions and own terminal infrastructure will allow Kazakhstan to increase the grain export traffic to Turkey and other near and far-abroad countries.