What is International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC)?

Key facts about International North-South Transport Corridor:

• It is a multimodal transportation agreement formed with a trilateral agreement between India, Iran and Russia at the Euro-Asian Conference on Transport in 2000. 
• It links the Indian Ocean to the Caspian Sea via the Persian Gulf onwards into Russia and Northern Europe.
• The corridor encompasses sea, road and rail routes.
• The main purpose of the corridor was to reduce carriage costs and transit time between India and Russia. The transit time is expected to reduce to almost half, once the corridor becomes fully functional.
• The agreement has been ratified by 13 countries namely, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Armenia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Ukraine.

About Chabahar Port:

• It is located off the Gulf of Oman in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan & is the only Iranian port with direct access to the ocean.