Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

President Ilham Aliyev attended the opening of the RO-RO terminal at the Baku International Sea Trade Port in the Alat settlement of Qaradag district on January 9.

Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev informed the head of state about the new terminal and other works done at the Baku Sea Trade Port.

The terminal, capable of receiving about 60,000 TIRs or 1.8 million tons of cargo per year, was built in accordance with the most up-to-date technical requirements.

The RO-RO terminal consists of two lateral bridges. The annual capacity of the first bridge on the terminal is 800,000 tons, and the second one -- 1 million tons. The length of the first bridge is 222 meters, and the length of the second one makes up about 190 meters.

In accordance with the plan, the first stage of the new port complex under construction will now have 12 berths with a cargo handling capacity of 15 million tons of cargo per year, including 100,000 units of 20-foot containers.

In the first phase, for RO-RO vessels, it is planned to build two berths, a terminal for dry cargo and containers consisting of seven universal berths, two ferry berths and one berth for service vessels.

Also, a repair base for the service vessels of the flotilla, the operational building of the port, cargo areas and warehouses, as well as border and customs points will be built.

The length of the berth for service flotilla vessels in the complex is 155 meters and 11 small vessels can be moored here at the same time.

Based on the project schedule, by the end of January this year, the construction of seven more universal cargo berths will be completed. And by the end of the first quarter of 2018, it is planned to complete the construction of warehouses, auxiliary buildings, other relevant infrastructure facilities, laying their engineering and communication lines and installing auxiliary systems. Construction of the operational building of the port will be completed in May 2019.

The Baku International Sea Trade Port in Azerbaijan’s Alat settlement is expected to become one of the leading trade and logistics hubs of Eurasia. The implementation of all three phases of construction is projected to increase the capacity up to 7,660 tons on a daily basis.

Located at the intersection of the East-West and North-South transport corridors, the new Baku International Sea Trade Port, the construction of which is an integral part of the policy of turning Azerbaijan into an important transport and logistics center of the region, plays a crucial and important role in expanding the country's transit capacities.

The latest engineering innovations that meet the modern standards were used in the construction of the new Baku Sea Port.

The new port will serve as a transport and cargo station for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which was commissioned last year.

Thus, a basis will be created for the formation of an efficient and sustainable logistics chain that will ensure the concentration of cargo flows entering the country along the corridors from the north, south, east and west in the new port complex and their transportation from here along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line to Europe or in an easterly direction by ships.

Also, the creation of the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) that will ensure a wider transit and transport potential of the country is envisaged on the territory of the port.

FTZ will be located within the grounds of the new port, covering an area of 100 hectares. Since the new port is being built at the major railway juncture connect­ing the North-South and the East-West railway lines in Azerbaijan, FTZ will also have rail access. Serving as a multimodal transit logis­tics hub, the new port and FTZ will become a major consolidation and distribution centre in Central Eurasia that provides a wide range of value added services.

The FTZ is expected to bring up to $1 billion just in the first few years. Special tax and customs policy, which will be pursued in the territory of the free trade zone will also stipulate further development and simplification of a number of procedures.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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