LAHORE: The National Logistics Cell (NLC) has revived two international road corridors after it successfully completed the first-ever one-side commercial run by transporting high value products from Pakistan to Turkey and Azerbaijan under the Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) convention.

“Our trucks carrying containers loaded with goods reached Istanbul and Baku via Tehran on Oct 7 night under the TIR admission. The vehicles had moved from Karachi on Sept 27 and completed the journey of over 5,000 kilometres within 10 days,” said an NLC official spokesman.

The NLC’s first road movement received an overwhelming response from the government and business communities of both Turkey and Azerbaijan. And the first commercial run was made possible with all-out support of Iran, the spokesman added.

Special ceremonies were held at Istanbul and Baku to mark establishment of the road connectivity bet­ween the brotherly countries in the region.

The reception ceremony held at Murat Bey Customs Post, Istanbul, was attended by senior officials of Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Ministry of Trade, Chamber of Commerce & Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, ECO Secre­tariat, Transport Ministry of Iran and representatives of Turkish logistics industry.

Pakistan’s Ambassador in Turkey, Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, and Umberto de Pretto, Secretary General of Geneva-based IRU, were also present on the occasion.

“The landmark step will stren­gthen road connectivity between Pakistan and Turkey which will ultimately help in promotion of bilateral trade,” the spokesman quoted Mr Qazi as having said at the ceremony.

A similar ceremony was also held at Baku to welcome the launching of TIR operations by NLC to Azerbaijan. The exporters and logistics companies of Azerbaijan evinced keen interest in the TIR operations.

High value goods including textile-related equipment, raw material, electronics, plastic, household items, computers, home appliances, non-perishable food items, dried fruit, furniture, carpets etc are preferred to be transported in containers and once these are sealed/packed after necessary legal procedures (security, customs, etc) cannot be checked on the way, as these, once loaded, are to be opened only at the final destination under the TIR admission.

It may be mentioned that the NLC had been granted TIR admission in August by the Pakistan National Authorisation Committee of International Transport Union. Under the admission, the cell has been allowed movement of cargo across the borders without procedural hiccups.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2021