Belarus and Uzbekistan have launched a new railway route for freight transportation. The first through train, named the 'Slavic Caravan', departed from Orsha-Vostochnaya station and will travel through Russia and Kazakhstan without being reorganized, which will nearly halve delivery times.

The inaugural journey includes wagons carrying wood products, sugar, potato starch, and compound feed. Initially, the train is scheduled to depart twice a month, and in the future, it will include containers with multimodal cargo delivered by road transport.

As noted by the head of the Belarusian Railway, Valery Verenich, the new service will almost double the speed of delivery. While individual wagons previously took up to two months, cargo will now arrive in Uzbekistan within 5-7 days. The train will also operate on a fixed schedule, similar to passenger trains.

Moreover, the new route will allow small enterprises to send goods in batches starting from one 20-ton container, without waiting for a full wagon load. The possibility of forming consolidated containers from multiple shippers is also provided.

The 'Slavic Caravan' project is being implemented to expand supplies of Belarusian products to the Uzbek market. In the opposite direction, it is planned to transport Uzbek goods, including light industry products, as well as vegetables and fruits.

According to the chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Alexander Rogozhnik, delivering a 20-ton container by the new train is at least one and a half times cheaper than by road transport. He also announced his intention to visit Uzbekistan in mid-August, where a roadmap for cooperation with the Andijan region is planned to be signed.

It is worth recalling that during the July talks in Minsk, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Alexander Lukashenko set the task of increasing mutual trade turnover to $2 billion.

Source: podrobno.uz