By Oleg Poleev, CEO of JSC “Russian Railways Logistics”
Last few years have become pivotal for global transport logistics market and for Russia-India cooperation in transport sector, in particular. In new geopolitical conditions, not only did both countries confirm their commitment to strengthening economic and logistics ties, but also revealed new opportunities for trade growth.
Which factors give confidence that logistics will help India and Russia to reach an ambitious goal set by the two countries to achieve $100 billion trade turnover by 2030?
Fast development of the International North-South Transport Corridor
In the new economic reality, the INSTC has turned into one of the main logistics trends, being a subject of active dialogue between the member-states and rapidly expanding its geography.
The Eastern route of the INSTC, which connects Russia and India by rail and sea through the territories of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran, is especially in high demand today. This route has good throughput capacity, relies on highly developed transport infrastructure and offers consigners comfortable financial conditions of delivery.
Being a nominated operator along the Eastern branch of the INSTC, RZD Logistics is actively involved in the organization of seamless transportation on this route and notes significant progress in the joint work of the corridor member states, which is reflected mainly in shortened time and cost of delivery.
Due to the partners’ efforts the average time of railway transportation along the Eastern route (across Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan) to Iranian port of Bandar Abbas from Moscow region today is 16 days, from Chelyabinsk region – 11 days, which is approximately three times faster than two-three years ago, during the route launch. A task for the nearest perspective is to reduce the railway delivery time from Moscow to Iranian port Bandar Abbas to 10 days.
By joint efforts of the corridor member states the net cost of the service along the Eastern route of the INSTC has been reduced by 60% since the project launch, while the volume of transportation along this route in January-September 2025 increased in comparison to the same period of 2024 by 1,9 times.
Course for diversification of India-Russia trade turnover
The trade turnover between Russia and India has a distinct tendency for diversification. The share of industrial and agricultural products in Russian export, as well as import from India is constantly growing, which defines demand for reliable logistics on alternative routes for all kinds of products.
The Eastern route of the INSTC is developing in accordance with this tendency and presents a working logistics solution for the delivery of wide range of cargo. The list of goods imported today to Russia from India along the Eastern route of the INSTC includes construction supplies, clothing and footwear, haberdashery, rice, plastics, rolled iron, confectionery, seasoning and food concentrates. Leading positions in Russian export to India hold paper products, lumber, hygiene products, furniture, roofing materials, food and other types of goods.
Pharmaceutics is a very perspective industry in this regard. Today the Eastern route of the INSTC is ready to deliver Indian and Russian pharmaceutical products that require special conditions of transportation. This logistics solution is especially relevant and timely taking into consideration the fact that India is among the leading suppliers of medications to Russian market and is planning to additionally increase the volume of supplies in the nearest future.
High potential of the INSTC
The Eastern route of the INSTC is a subject of close cooperation between railways of Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan. Step by step, by united efforts the partners are developing paperless technologies of transportation, working on special tariff conditions and increase the frequency of container trains running.
Significant work aimed at the increase of throughput capacity of the Eastern route has been done in the area of transport infrastructure modernization along the Eastern route. The volume of cargo transported by rail is constantly growing due to reliability and speed of railway delivery.
The number of Russian regions that use the Eastern route of the INSTC is constantly growing. Today the geography of export shipments includes Moscow and North-West region, as well as Ural and West Siberia. In parallel, more and more consigners from India show interest in Russian market, the percent of high-tech, chemical cargo and equipment shipments is gradually rising.
Today logistics ties between Russia and India have reached a new level partly due to the development of the INSTC and have totally adapted to the needs of exporters and importers from both countries, making it possible to achieve the goal of $100 billion trade turnover by 2030.
Author :
Mr. Oleg Poleev, CEO of JSC “Russian Railways Logistics”
