Russia – Azerbaijan Overland Border Crossing Being Enlarged – Increases Throughput 12 Times

The overland Tagirkent-Kazmalyar checkpoint on the border between Russia and Azerbaijan is to be upgraded and expanded, with plans to increase its vehicle throughput by 12 times. The Tagirkent-Kazmalyar crossing is a priority development project as it is a key access along the International North-South Transportation Corridor, (INSTC) which connects Russia south to markets in Asia and East to Central Asia and China.

By the end of this year, an integrated state border crossing system will be deployed at the checkpoint, which will provide automated data collection from all inspection complexes. It will provide automated data collection and processing from radiation monitoring systems, weight and dimensional control, inspection and inspection complexes, video analytics systems, car inspection, electronic queue and speed up the border crossing process. Part of this includes a procedure where it is possible to scan a vehicle in motion. It will also include an electronic queue system for trucks.

As a result, the number vehicle lanes at the Tagirkent-Kazmalyar border will increase from the current six to twenty, while the total throughput capacity will increase 12 times to 2,360 vehicles per day.

Tagirkent-Kazmalyar is in the Republic of Dagestan, Russian territory on the Caucasus mountains, and is 33 km northeast of Magaramkent, the regional administrative centre. Dagestan covers an area of 50,300 square kilometres, with a population of over 3.1 million. The expanded crossing will help facilitate Dagestan-Azerbaijan trade. Russia’s bilateral trade volumes with Azerbaijan reached US$4.4 billion in 2023, an increase of 17.5% on 2022, according to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee. Azerbaijan’s trade with Russia accounted for 8.52% of all its foreign trade last year, with Russia being Azerbaijan’s third biggest trading partner. Russia’s overland exports to Azerbaijan mainly consist of wheat, meslin, timber, and fertilizers. Azerbaijan sends Russia mostly animal products, fruits and nuts, plastics, rubber and mineral products. Energy shipments are typically sent via the maritime ports.

There are four and border checkpoints between Russia and Azerbaijan. The largest is the Yarag – Kazmalyar crossing, where reconstruction work was completed at the end of 2023.

Russia has been embarking on a national scale programme of upgrading capacity at its land border crossings. We have recently discussed updates on China here, Mongolia here.