CHENNAI: Chennai will be hosting the Indo-Russian Workshop on Eastern Maritime Corridor (EMC) from October 30 to November 1, according to Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal.
Addressing a session in Vladivostok aimed at forging possibilities for early operationalisation of EMC as an alternative trade route between the Russian port city of Vladivostok and the Indian port city of Chennai, he said, "The operationalisation of EMC will usher in a new era of trade relationship between India and Russia. India remains firmly committed to making innovative solutions to enhance and further foster the strong bilateral relationship between our two great nations. As our teams hedged their effort for early operationalisation of EMC, the visit to Vladivostok, Vostochny, Nakhodka and Kozmino was particularly helpful."
The Russian government also expressed its desire to visit the Chennai port with a large business delegation to explore opportunities and possibilities through bilateral discussions with its Indian business delegation. The Russian delegation was represented by Sergey Mochalnikov, Deputy Minister of Energy Minister, Russian Federation and Maxim Reshetnikov, Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. The session was moderated by Denis Ilatovsky, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Commercial Seaports.
The deputy chairman of Chennai Port Authority, S Viswanathan, delivered a presentation on the "Capabilities of Indian ports and prospects for operationalisation of Chennai-Vladivostok corridor."
Elena Kazarina, commercial director of the Port, Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port, made a presentation on "Development of FESCO's deep sea routes and further directions of transport and logistics relations between Russia and India."
It may be recalled that a Memorandum of Intent on Development of Maritime Communications between Vladivostok and Chennai was exchanged in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September 2019. Subsequently, an independent study found that coking coal as the most suitable commodity for trade between the two countries using EMC. In due course, more commodities like oil, LNG, fertilisers will be added to the list of commodities transported via EMC.
Eastern Maritime Corridor is estimated to reduce the time required to transport cargo between Indian and Russian Ports of the Far-East Region by up to 16 days. Currently, it takes 40 days to transport goods from India to Far East Russia via Europe. The present trade route between Mumbai in India and St Petersburg in Russia covers a distance of 8,675 nautical miles which takes approximately 35 to 40 days.
The Chennai-Vladivostok sea route (EMC) will cover a distance of about 5,600 nautical miles. A large container ship which travels at the normal cruising speed of 20-25 knots (37-46 km/hour), will be able to cover this distance in approximately 10 to 12 days. This corridor holds immense potential to unlock new opportunities for trade and cooperation.