TRANSPORT WORKERS STAKE ON TRANSIT CARRIAGE








MOSCOW, MARCH 6. /A RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT/ -- Transit carriage is to become the point of growth for the transport sector and the entire Russian economy, Transport Minister Sergei Frank said on Tuesday at a collegium of the Russian Transport Ministry. 


	To Sergei Frank, his ministry has come up with the basic principles of the transit policy with which Russia, using transit corridors which pass across it, will gain large additional sums from shipments from West Europe to Asia and back. 


	The idea of developing and arranging transport corridors was approved at the 2nd international Eurasian conference last September, Frank recalled. This project was also promoted in an agreement between the Russian, Indian and Iranian governments, which Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Belarus and other countries are going to join. The agreement, which was signed at that conference, intended creating the North-South corridor. 


	As regards the West-East project, an impulse for its development was given during  the recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Republic of Korea and Vietnam. Then, agreement was reached on linking transport arteries of the DPRK and the Republic of Korea to the Transsiberian Trunk Railroad. 


	Work is under way to use also transit aerial routes, reported Sergei Frank. The opening of crosspolar routes between airports in North America and South-East Asia has been officially announced. (nov/kaf)