Artificially created barrier at Azerbaijan's Aliati port

2026-03-31

“The corridor is neglected” - an artificially created barrier at Azerbaijan's Aliati port is called a systemic problem

Over the past year, the problem of long-term delays of wagons loaded in Georgia and sent to Central Asia, in particular, at the Aliati port in Azerbaijan, has become systemic.

Despite the fact that Azerbaijan has its own combined automobile-rail ferries on the Aliati-Aktau/Kurik route - Agdam, Nakhichevan, Zarifa Aliyeva, Belakan, Dagestan, Shakhdag - of small capacity, freight forwarders and transport companies cite administrative barriers artificially created by Azerbaijani port services as the main reason for the delays of loaded wagons in Georgia while waiting for the ferry.

According to freight forwarders, there are frequent cases when wagons loaded in Georgia and destined for Central Asia have to stop for a month and a half or more while waiting for the ferry due to delays on the railway tracks leading to the Aliati port. Naturally, such delays cause them legitimate dissatisfaction.

According to various sources, currently, 700-900 units of wagons are waiting on Caspian Sea ferries and are ready for loading. This can be confirmed by using the modern Railwagonlocation wagon tracking information system, which forwarders use to determine the location of the wagon.

Forwarders cite Azerbaijan’s prioritization of its own Azerbaijani cargo on the ferry at the Aliati port as the main reason for the delay in the ferry of wagons loaded in Georgia.

Forwarders cite some examples of delays in the transportation of Georgian export products through the corridor, in particular, it takes 2-2.5 months to send a wagon loaded with Borjomi from Borjomi to Tashkent.

Delayed shipments through the corridor negatively affect the country's main export product - wine, which takes 2 months to transport to Almaty using the Aktau port.

In the conversation, freight forwarders note that there are frequent cases when wagons loaded with Azerbaijani cargo, with the support of local port services, enter ferries illegally, or wagons in the Georgian queue are deliberately delayed by local port services and replaced with local motor so-called trailers.

In both cases, the victim is the Georgian freight forwarder, in such cases it is difficult for them to make any appeals, as a result the corridor loses its attractiveness.

In addition to the administrative barriers in the Azerbaijani port, additional infrastructural barriers are added on the other side of the Caspian Sea, despite the fact that the fare for a wagon on the ferry route has recently been officially increased by $150, the difficulties are caused by the prolonged procedures for the use of a heat engine by the Turkmen railway.

Freight forwarders laconically assess the current state of the corridor's functioning, they openly state that - "the corridor has been neglected".

Overall, freight forwarders note that due to the administrative and infrastructural barriers on both sides of the Caspian, the corridor is suffering, its competitiveness is declining, the corridor is losing its attractiveness, and cargo owners are increasingly choosing alternative routes.

Given that the issue of the attractiveness of the corridor is a key priority for our country, we believe that verifying the reliability of existing information should be the prerogative of state services.

transcor.ge