ASHGABAT, May 3. /TASS/. Russian Railways projects a 12-fold increase in rail shipments along the eastern route of the International North-South Transport Corridor in 2023 compared with the previous year, First Deputy Managing Director of Russian Railways Sergey Pavlov told a conference on Wednesday.

"I know that major efforts are underway here, in Turkmenistan, meaning the development of the route in the eastern [direction of the North-South Transport Corridor] <…> We plan to carry over 1 mln tons of cargoes already this year," he said.

According to Pavlov’s presentation, the volume of shipments of 1 mln tons is 12-fold higher than that carried in 2022. The eastern route of the North-South corridor runs through Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran. That said, Turkmenistan has not yet joined the intergovernmental agreement on creation of the multimodal transport corridor North-South (signed by Russia, India and Iran in 2000, with the number of participants extending later to 14), though it is officially working on joining the agreement.