Mumbai to Marseilles: Why IMEEC is a breakthrough for 21st-century globalisation

Mumbai-Port of Suez-Marseilles - it is an all-sea route.

The historic signing of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC) MoU on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi has generated unprecedented interest globally, with stakeholders in countries directly and indirectly connected to the proposed corridor taking stock of potential strategic dividends for economic growth, trade, business, and human development. In the weeks since the announcement, opinion makers and analysts have tried to situate the corridor in a nexus of geo-strategic value, infrastructure and distributed growth opportunities, with good reason. Connectivity, throughout history — the building of ports, putting down of railroads, and laying of roads — has been a force multiplier, and often the turning point in the lives of cities and nations. The IMEEC goes one step further in its promise to accelerate inter-state connectivity, a surprisingly rare milestone for 21st-century globalisation.

Although no details are yet available in the public domain other than the MoU, it is evident that the IMEEC will be primarily a transport corridor, an alternate route for transportation for freight traffic, containerised and bulk cargo between India, the Middle East and Europe. The IMEEC is a sea-land-sea multimodal transport corridor connecting India to the Gulf by sea route and thereafter by railway, all the way to the port of Haifa on the Mediterranean coast. The cargo after trans-shipment at the port from rail freight wagons to ships shall sail to the destined European ports. Hinterland consumption centres, industries and markets would thereafter be served by connecting rail and road networks. A similar movement is envisioned from the European ports in the Mediterranean to Haifa and onwards via Gulf ports to India.

What makes this exceptional to the story of 21st-century globalisation is an interesting mix of timing, political will, strong “bones” or infrastructure in the participating countries, and a regional comparative advantage in this part of the world. In this regard, it might be interesting to consider the IMEEC vis-a-vis other adjacent existing and potential routes. A look at two adjacent existing and potential corridors on the north and the south of the IMEEC is necessary to evaluate its comparative advantages and potential.

Mumbai-Port of Suez-Marseilles: An existing all-sea route south of IMEEC

This is an all-sea route. Container ships and those with bulk and break-bulk cargo sail from western Indian ports, across the Arabian Sea, circle the Arabian Peninsula, enter the Gulf of Aden, sail through the Red Sea, and exit into the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal. About 90 ships transit across the 193 km long and 200-metre-wide canal daily. In 2022, over 23,000 ships transited the international waterways. The Suez faces issues of handling a growing number of ships including mega 24,000 TEU vessels, and the average time to transit the canal is now up to 16 hours on average. Apart from the only exit available through the Suez, this route to the Mediterranean is longer — Mumbai to the port of Suez is about 3,195 nautical miles (about 6,000 km) and takes on an average between 13-15 days of being on water. From the Suez Port to European ports is across the Mediterranean on traditional well-identified navigational grids.

Delhi-Tehran-Istanbul-Europe: An all-land route north of IMEEC

Envisaged as the southern corridor of the Trans Asian Railway (TAR), this is a potential rail route connecting Singapore to Kapikule in Europe. The rail connectivity in the Southeast Asian region with South Asia still has a few missing links, and therefore for this comparative analysis, only the Delhi-Istanbul route is analysed. This rail route has ‘difference of gauge’ issues between South Asia and Southwest Asia (broad and standard rail gauges), requiring trans-shipment points. Apart from the gauge change issues, a major constraint is the missing link in Turkiye. The railway connectivity between Iran and Turkiye involves a ferry crossing across Lake Van. Ferries carry railway coaches and cargo across this lake, which prevents the seamless movement of long and heavy-haul freight trains.

Container demo services have been run on this route between Tehran and Istanbul. Commissioning of a railway line north of Lake Van is essential for operationalising this corridor in addition to bilateral transit and tariff agreements amongst participating countries. The time involved in transiting a freight train on this all-rail route is estimated to be about 15-20 days between Delhi to Istanbul alone. Other Western European markets are farther off, and thus this route will not be very efficient even after the commissioning of missing links.

IMEEC: A sea-land-sea multimodal corridor

It is starkly evident that given the constraints of longer distance and transit time via the southern Suez route and the northern TAR route, the IMEEC, a potential multimodal sea-land-sea corridor will become the preferred corridor. The eastern side of the IMEEC has developed infrastructure networks in the hinterlands and at ports in India, Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. Surface movement envisaged by the Saudi Arab Railway (SAR) network already has connectivity with the ports of Dammam and Ras al Khair. A container ship takes about five days on sea from Mumbai to Jabal Ali (1,335 nautical miles) and about six days to Dammam (1,630 nautical miles). Rail connectivity to all major ports being commissioned by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) must connect with the SAR network to be able to avoid the movement of trailers to the rail heads on SAR.

The SAR network is a modern and efficient heavy and long-haul railway network connecting Dammam and Ras al Khair and extends up to Al Haditha on the Jordan border covering about 1,400 km. Onwards to Haifa port in Israel, there is a missing rail link in Jordan. About 165 km from Al Haditha to Amman and 95 km from Amman (Jordan) to Beit She’an in Israel on completion shall connect the port of Haifa (Israel). Haifa with its over 15-metre-deep draft is the biggest port in Israel, handling about 30 million tonnes of cargo annually and plans to increase container handling capacity to 500,000 annually. This port is connected by rail, linking it to Beit She’an near Jordan, and has adequate terminal capacity to be able to cater to additional cargo on commissioning of the IMEEC.

As no transport corridor depends entirely on an origin-destination (OD) matrix, it would perhaps be necessary (and of great value) that the IMEEC stakeholders consider the development of other feeder routes which would generate additional traffic to and from ports, manufacturing hubs and consumption centres. In this regard, the major port of Duqm (Oman), which is only about 900 nautical miles from Mumbai and involves only three days on sea, could be connected by rail to Riyadh on the SAR network thereby further reducing transit time and logistics costs significantly. Similarly, connecting the Iraqi and Syrian railways to the corridor at Amman could open trade to these countries from India and Europe.

Not to forget that the IMEEC MoU envisages not only a transport corridor but has commitment from the stakeholders for laying cables for electricity, telecommunication and a pipeline for transporting clean hydrogen. It is clear from this broad assessment of comparative advantages that the IMEEC is significantly ahead of other nearly similar initiatives. The IMEEC, with all the stakeholders committing to see it happening in the shortest possible timeframe, is an unprecedented step, and a mile marker for the broader region. If done right, the rollout of the IMEEC might just open up a new chapter in our collective thinking about global connectivity and globalisation for the 21^st century.

M Jamshed is Former Member - Traffic, Railway Board. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.