Tatarstan To Expand River Cargo Freight Transport Capacity To 50 Million Tonnes

Tatarstan’s river cargo transport throughput must be increased significantly by 2030, says Rustam Minnikhanov, the head of the republic. He was speaking at his annual address to the regional parliament.

Minnikhanov stated that “The cargo flow by water is insufficient at the current 33 million tonnes. The goal is to increase water shipments to 50 million tonnes per year by 2030 and integrate Tatarstan into the North–South transport corridor, including through river logistics.”

The regional Ministry of Transport was instructed to conduct a comprehensive audit of river infrastructure and upgrade and expand moorings and access roads.

The Tatarstan government and Russia’s state river ports authority, Rosmorrechflot, signed an agreement in June 2025 on further cooperation within the framework of developing transshipment complexes such as multimodal logistics centers in the region based on river ports, to develop river cargo transport in Tatarstan.

Tatarstan is situated between the Volga River and the Kama River (a tributary of the Volga), with the Volga the longest endorheic (non-ocean emptying) river in the world, with a length of 3,531 km (2,194 mi). Five of the ten largest cities of Russia, including the nation’s capital, Moscow, are located along the Volga’s drainage basin.

Other major rivers connecting with the Volga in Tatarstan are as follows:

Belaya River (1,430km)
Ik River (571km)
Kama River (1,805km)
Vyatka River (1,314km)

The Volga River empties into the Caspian Sea, a major shipping hub with onward connectivity to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, all of which, along with Russia, are part of the International North-South Transport Corridor with extensive trade links to Central Asia, the Middle East, East Africa, and South Asia. The capital, Kazan, is also a major transport artery and is connected to the Trans-Siberian Express and high-speed rail facilities to Moscow and other large Russian cities such as Ekaterinburg, Perm, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Ulan-Ude, and Vladivostok.