Topic: India and its neighbourhood- relations.
International North South Transport Corridor:
Context:
India has made the following demands wrt INSTC at the 3-day “Maritime India” summit that was conducted virtually:
- Include Chabahar port in the 13-nation International North South Transport Corridor.
- Expand INSTC membership by including Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
Need for and significance:
Establishing an eastern corridor through Afghanistan would maximise its potential.
About INSTC:
It is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight.
Regions involved: India, Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.
Dry runs of two routes were conducted in 2014:
- First was Mumbai to Baku via Bandar Abbas.
- Second was Mumbai to Astrakhan via Bandar Abbas, Tehran and Bandar Anzali.
Significance of the corridor:
- Conceived well before China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), INSTC will not only help cut down on costs and time taken for transfer of goods from India to Russia and Europe via Iran but also provide an alternative connectivity initiative to countries in the Eurasian region.
- This will also synchronize with the Ashgabat agreement, a Multimodal transport agreement signed by India, Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, for creating an international transport and transit corridor facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- About INSTC.
- Countries covered.
- Important cities.
- Key ports.
Mains Link:
Discuss the significance of INSTC.
Sources: the Hindu.
