India and Russia flag once again Chennai Vladivostok Maritime Corridor

India and Russia have reiterated their commitment  to establish the Chennai-Vladivostok Maritime corridor a project which has been talked about for quite some time. The proposal was mooted when Prime Minister Modi visited the East Russian city nearly five years ago but there has been little progress since then.

Russia has described the project as a breakthrough for ties between Moscow and New Delhi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced December 27th.

Today we have agreed upon a number of steps that will allow us to expand cooperation including in the context of the upcoming launch of the International North-South Transport Corridor, the establishment of the Chennai-Vladivostok route and the cooperation on exploration of the Northern Sea route,” Lavrov said during a joint press conference held with India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Moscow. Jaishankar is currently on a five-day visit to Russia.

Industry sources however do not believe that Chennai-Vladivostok corridor could yield sufficient volumes considering that only the western part of Russia is industrialized and that eastern half where Vladivostok port is situated has hardly any major industry.

The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and the Chennai-Vladivostok, or Eastern Maritime Corridor, would ensure transportation corridors between both the Western and Eastern coasts of India with Russia.

In a major breakthrough in Russia-India ties, the two countries have agreed to establish the Chennai-Vladivostok maritime route. This route, also known as the Eastern Maritime Corridor, would connect the Russian port of Vladivostok in the Pacific Ocean with the Indian port of Chennai on the Coromandel Coast.

The two sides had also discussed the development of this corridor during the eighth Eastern Economic Forum meeting held in Vladivostok in September.The Chennai-Vladivostok maritime corridor would reduce the time of travel of cargo between the Russian Far East and India to about 24 days from the 40 days it currently takes to transport goods via the port of St. Petersburg to Mumbai. The maritime route would cover around 5,600 nautical miles, while the current St. Petersburg-Mumbai route covers a distance of 8,675 nautical miles.