Tehran, January 16 (MRUD NEWS)—Transit of road fleet through Astara Border has had 18 percent increase compared to the last year and 48 percent increase compared to 2019 before the outbreak of Corona, Javad Hedayati, the director-general of Transit and International Transportation Bureau at Iran’s Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization (RMTO) informed.
Astara Border crossing is the road gateway between Iran and Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia and a very strategic road border crossing along the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC). It is the third active commercial border crossing in Iran.
Considering the ongoing process of Iran's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union and the continuation of war in Ukraine, the volume of traffic and export of goods through this border has increased unprecedentedly. Since the beginning of November 2022, the traffic has increased, which, naturally, is expected to be an upward trend during the holidays in January until the end of the March (Iranian New Year), Hedayati explained.
Normally, the traffic of the road fleet from Astara Border is on average 400 vehicles per day. However, from mid-November, and during the last weeks of 2022 and the beginning of the new year, we face the highest demand for some export shipments, especially fruits and vegetables. So, the volume of refrigerated exports to Azerbaijan and beyond always increases in this time. The total traffic of fleets carrying export/import freights and transit goods at this border in the two months ending in January had been 16,000 traffics, which shows 48% increase compared to the same period in 2019 before the outbreak of Corona, and an increase of 18% compared to the last year, he further added.
He added that due to considerable demand in this border for exports to Azerbaijan and then to Russia and Georgia, and also transit of the fleet of these countries into the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the road fleets may have to stop for 3-4 days. However, the two to three weeks stops are mainly due to the problems in the documents of drivers and trucks.
Considering the importance of transit for Iran's Government, and expanding relations with the neighboring countries, facilitating the increase of transit fleets from this border is on the agenda, especially with regard to the current conditions of Russia and the increase of trade with its southern territories. In this regard, the Astara Border has succeeded to double the volume of transit through Iran's territory compared to last year, he pointed out.