Azerbaijan building new Caspian Sea naval port

A few miles from Baku in the village of Aliaki a new port is being built. Dutch company Royal Haskoning has won a tender to undertake this project. The first phase of construction will take three years. Eventually the port will be a free economic zone.

The first phase involves the construction of two ferry boat and three cargo boat terminals for receiving Ro- Ro type vessels and container carriers. Eventually the port will have extra terminals for different types of vessels. The estimated cost of the project is USD 400 million and it will become possible to service up to 12 million tonnes of cargo annually.

Currently there are six commercial international ports in the Caspian littoral. These are Baku (Azerbaijan), Turkemenbashi (Turkmenistan), Aktau (Kazakhstan), Astrakhan (Russia) and Enzel and Neka in Iran.