The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) corridor is undergoing several changes that could improve its efficiency. The corridor’s road leg crossing Kyrgyzstan will shift, while an agreement between the Central Asian country and China could decrease waiting and transhipment times on the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border. 

Typically, Uzbekistan-bound cargo from China arrives by rail at the Chinese city of Kashgar. At the Erkesh-Tam border crossing between China-Kyrgyzstan, it tranships on trucks to cross Kyrgyzstan and reach Osh, on the border with Uzbekistan. From Osh, cargo continues its way on trains again.

A recently signed Memorandum of Understanding between Chinese company Kashgar Zhogcheng International Logistics and Kyrgyz company Karabulak Ltd. aims at completely changing this route. Instead, it proposes that the road leg of the CKU corridor will take a much longer detour.

Specifically, cargo arriving via train in Kashgar will enter Kyrgyzstan not through the Erkesh-Tam border crossing but through Torugart. Subsequently, it will continue through Kyrgyzstan again on trucks up to the Kyrgyz north near Bishkek and then take a turn to the west and the border station of Osh.

The map below illustrates the new route compared to the old one. One could feel nothing but confusion: how could the new Torugart-Osh route, at least twice as long as the route between Erkesh-Tam and Osh, increase efficiency by any chance?

Longer detour but less time

Yulin Sun, chairman of Kashgar Zhogcheng International Logistics, told RailFreight.com that it is not the distance that matters but the congestion. Since Kyrgyzstan is a relatively small country, the detour would add up to around two to three hundred extra kilometres, resulting in two to three extra transit hours for truck drivers.

However, the longer distance is nothing compared with the congestion at the border terminal. “Current terminal congestion results in a waiting time of five to six days for truck drivers”, Sun explained. She underlined that the new MoU allows truck drivers to leave their trailers at the border terminal and pick up another round trip directly, which will result in more trucks running on the highway instead of being congested at the terminal.

Local administration matters

Why would the new MoU only apply to the service between Torugart and Osh but not to the much shorter route between Erkesh-Tam and Osh? Sun explained that this is due to the differences in local administration. Torugart has a much more streamlined administrative system to handle this driver-free trailer service in terms of communication and cooperation. Erkesh-Tam, on the other hand, has a much more complicated local administration system, making it hard to implement such a solution. As a result, the new service is so far only possible between the city of Torugart and Osh.

Alternative to Kazakhstan

The MoU also creates an alternative for cargo heading toward Uzbekistan via Kazakhstan. Traditionally, Uzbekistan-bound volumes would be exported from the Khorgos railway border crossing in China, where the railway would further connect Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

“The new CKU intermodal service will be a very competitive alternative to the China-Kazakhstan-Uzebekistan route, as much traffic can be directed to the Kashgar-Torugart-Osh intermodal route”, says Sun. The Kashgar Zhogcheng International Logistics company plans to operate two weekly westbound services between Kashgar and Osh via Torugart, with 45 TEU for each train.