ArmInfo.Thanks to extensive preparatory work, negotiations with Georgian and Russian colleagues, the South Caucasus Railway is ready to offer the market a comprehensive service for the transportation of goods between Armenia and Russia at a through tariff rate.
Deputy Director General of the South Caucasian Railways CJSC for Finance and Economics Ilya Kelperis told ArmInfo about this. According to him, this happened for a number of objective reasons, since the conditions that allow us to present a competitive offer have been formed only now. First of all, these are the crisis phenomena in the region's economy and the decrease in the volume of cargo transportation, which stimulates competition and leads to the need for making decisions that are unusual for the period of growth in traffic volumes. And all market participants understand this well.
Only a comprehensive solution allows to provide competitive conditions. "And we are extremely grateful for the support and understanding of the government of the Republic of Armenia, in particular, to Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, our shareholder of OJSC RR, who formed the conditions for expanding the geography of transportation of products of Armenian producers, to our Georgian colleagues who provided favorable conditions for the carriage of goods from Participation ferry crossing. As a result, having redeemed the ferry's slot-charter, the South Caucasian Railway can now provide unique conditions for the transportation of goods in the Armenia-Russia-Armenia communication at a through tariff rate, which was reduced by more than 2 times to the previous tariff," said Kelperis.
The Deputy General Director noted that at the moment the cost of delivering first class cargo (which is stone, building materials, mineral raw materials, etc.) from Yerevan to Moscow is $ 70 per ton, to St. Petersburg $ 75 per ton, To Novosibirsk $ 85 per ton, to Krasnoyarsk $ 90 per ton, to Khabarovsk $ 110 per ton. By road for 110 dollars per ton cargo is delivered at best only to Moscow. And from Moscow to Khabarovsk is still almost 9 thousand kilometers. "As for the relevance of the proposal, we believe that the product will be quite in demand, given the great opportunities that it opens up for business", - noted I. Kelperis. First of all, he pointed to the expansion of the geography of supplies of Armenian goods outside the Urals, the development of the markets of Siberia and the Far East. "I think building a house from Armenian tuff on the coast of the Sea of Japan is no less prestigious than on the coast of Sevan. And we expect that the large Armenian diaspora in Russia will not leave undetected the opening prospects, "said the deputy director.
South Caucasus Railways is a wholly owned subsidiary of Russian Railways and conducts concession management of Armenian railways. The railway infrastructure of Armenia was transferred to the concession management of SCR under the agreement signed on February 13, 2008. The Concession Agreement. The term of the concession management is 30 years with the right of prolongation for another 10 years.