India, Iran and Russia will meet next month to discuss the operation of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) that presents a cheaper and shorter alternative to the traditional route through the Suez Canal, PressTV reported.
The 7,200 km trade and transport corridor will allow India to send its goods to Bandar Abbas in Iran by sea, from where they will be transported to Iran’s Bandar Anzali on the Caspian Sea by road. Next, they will be shipped to Astrakhan in Russia and transported into Europe by rail.
The route will cut the time and cost of delivering goods by about 30% to more than 40%. Compared with the Suez Canal, the corridor will reduce the transport time between Mumbai and Moscow to about 20 days. The estimated capacity of the corridor is 20 to 30 million tonnes of goods per year, according to the report.
