The inception meeting for the Study Project on Commercialization of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran (KTI) Railway Corridor was held on 10 -11 April 2019 at the ECO Secretariat, Tehran. The meeting was attended by the delegations from the concerned authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan including private sector. Delegations from the Republic of Turkey and the Russian Federation also attended the meeting to share their expertise in running Europe-Asia corridors. The meeting was jointly organized by Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP), International Consultants and the ECO.
Based on the deliberations, the meeting came up with the conclusions and recommendations, where the proposed study outlines, presented by the international consultants, have been supported by the enroute countries. The meeting agreed to organize test run along the KTI railway corridor. As the corridor management mechanism is a critical component of the study project, it was agreed that the study team would draft possible options for corridor management mechanism for consideration of the countries so that to find out the most acceptable frame at the end.
As an another output, it was agreed that preliminary analysis on possibility of developing KTI railway corridor to an economic corridor among the countries would be incorporated in the Study, including the identification of the criteria for establishing Special Logistic/Economic Zones (such as one between Kazakhstan and China in Khorgos) along railway border crossings of the enroute counties.
The Timeline for implementation designed by ESCAP has been adopted in principle, anticipating missions to enroute countries for collection of information, organizing review and validation meetings and finally reporting to the Heads of Railways/Transport Ministers.
