The freight train traveling along the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) corridor arrived in Iran on Monday, a week after it was sent off from Margallah Station in Islamabad.
According to Pakistan Observer, the cargo train has 26 bogies with 23 tons of goods in each. The train will cover 6,500 kilometers, of which 2,570 km are in Iran, 2,000 km in Turkey and around 1,900 km in Pakistan. It will reach the final destination, Istanbul, in 12 days.
The train arrived at Zahedan Station on Monday after crossing the Iranian border, the freight was reloaded from the Pakistani to European wagons and sent off to Raze, Iran’s border with Turkey, IRNA reported
Pakistan’s Minister of Railways Azam Khan Swati along with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Commerce Advisor Abdul Razak Dawood inaugurated the ITI freight train service. The ambassadors of Turkey, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan also attended the train departure ceremony.
Shortest, Cheapest Asia-Europe Connection
Speaking at the flagging-off ceremony in Islamabad, Swati said the train cargo corridor will open the doors for business and connectivity in the region, adding that the project offers the shortest and most affordable route for transportation of goods between Asia and Europe.
Qureshi said the development is a new stage in the program for advancing the policy of regional connectivity and trade between neighbors and other countries and Dawood termed it a historic development.
The beginning of the train service is a “significant step toward regional connectivity that will unlock immense trade potential as the train is the cheapest mode of transportation in the world”, Amjad Ali, director general of the ITI train project, told Gulf News.
The train has a maximum capacity of 80,000 tons of goods.
Decade-Long Hiatus
Following a 10-year hiatus, a freight train service linking Turkey, Iran and Pakistan was relaunched on Tuesday in a major boost for trade among the three countries and within the region, Turkey’s state-run news service Anadolu Agency reported.
The ITI cargo train was launched in 2009 but suspended in 2011 due to several delays in Pakistan. It can complete the journey between the three countries in about 14 days, much faster and less costly than the alternate sea route, according to the Turkish media.
The train departed from Pakistan’s capital for Europe’s largest city with dozens of containers.
Anadolu Agency gave a slightly different account of the railroad: It will cover 1,990 kilometers (1,235 miles) inside Pakistan, before crossing through the Taftan border for a 2,603-kilometer (1,620 miles) stretch in Iran. The train will travel some 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles) in Turkey, pass through the capital Ankara before reaching its final stop in Istanbul.
Turkey, Pakistan and Iran are founders of the Economic Cooperation Organization, a 10-member regional cooperation bloc that was established in 1964 as the Regional Cooperation for Development and renamed ECO in 1985.
The decision to resume the ITI cargo train service was taken at a ministerial meeting of ECO member states in 2020.
Historic Development
At Tuesday’s ceremony in Islamabad, Pakistan’s foreign minister hailed the “historic” development as a step that will open new avenues for trade and business in the region and beyond.
He said an ITI passenger train could also be launched in the future to further enhance regional connectivity and economic integration.
Mustafa Yurdakul, Turkey’s ambassador to Pakistan, said the resumption of cargo train service is an important move within the ECO framework and vision.
“This project has been on the agenda for a long time. It is a step that will improve bilateral cooperation and bolster economic and commercial exchanges between our countries,” he said, emphasizing that the rail link should be extended further to other parts of Europe.
Qureshi said that the rail corridor “will play an important role in regional connectivity and promote economic activity in the region”. He hoped that passenger trains will also begin on the same route, following the smooth operations of the freight train.
Dawood termed it a historic day which “will be long remembered” as the beginning of regional connectivity and prosperity.
Turkish Ambassador Mustafa Yurdakul expressed hope that the train service will not stop at Istanbul but go all the way to Europe, which will benefit all regional countries as the economies bounce back in the post-Covid era.
According to Gulf News, the train will take less than 12 days to complete the one-way trip of nearly 6,656 kilometers. It has a maximum capacity of twenty 40-feet containers.
The first cargo train comprised 13 containers that will transport rice, dates and pink salt via two freight forwarders, Maxtelz Logistics and Haroon Brothers.
“The train service will greatly reduce the cost of transit of goods from Pakistan to Turkey, which usually takes at least 30 days via sea,” Gohar Zia, director of Maxtelz Logistics, told Gulf News.
“This is a highly encouraging development for the business community and offers Pakistan potential to earn $32 million annually and this potential can be doubled if the corridor is connected to other railway stations in Sialkot, Faisalabad, Lahore, Karachi and Rohri” to transport goods to Turkey, Europe and Central Asia from Pakistan.
ITI Road Corridor Activated in Oct.
A ceremony was held on Oct. 8 at Murat Bey Customs Post in Istanbul to mark the arrival of the first two of Pakistan’s National Logistics Company trucks carrying goods from Pakistan to Turkey, via Iran, under the Transports Internationaux Routiers convention.
The NLC trucks departed from Karachi on Sept. 28 and reached Istanbul on Oct. 7 covering a distance of 5,300 kilometers.
Javad Hedayati, director general of Transit Affairs Bureau of Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization of Iran, says the ITI Corridor can easily replace the Suez Canal route.
“ECO’s ITI transportation corridor holds huge potential; for one thing, transportation time between Istanbul and Pakistan is reduced to 10-12 days from the 25-30 days [through the Suez Canal]. The corridor reduces transportation costs by 30%,” he was quoted as saying by the news portal of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.
According to Hedayati, transportation costs rose dramatically in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This has made road freight transport even more cost-effective. Today, there is a great opportunity for us to use our transit corridors, ITI in particular, to their full potential,” he said.
