The sea-rail intermodal freight train, the first of its kind along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, arrived at Qinzhou Port East Station, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on April 13 before departing to India.

The first sea-rail intermodal freight train carrying cargo to India along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor sets off from Chongqing on April 10. [Photo/qrb.cn]

The sea-rail intermodal freight train is carrying 25 containers of auto spare parts, worth over 8 million yuan ($1.2 million), and it will only take about 20 days to travel from Chongqing to India, 14 days less compared to the traditional river-sea transportation, which will greatly improve transport efficiency.

The launching of the sea-rail intermodal freight train enriches the multimodal transport system. [Photo/gx.xinhuanet.com]

Running under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor connects the Silk Road Economic Belt in the north and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in the south. Benefiting from the rapid development of the trade corridor, Qinzhou Port has witnessed a sharp increase in its foreign trade container liner routes. In the first quarter of this year, a total of 256 trains departed from Qinzhou Port East Station, a year-on-year growth of 574 percent, and a number of 12,804 containers were handled at the station, up 466 percent.  

The sea-rail intermodal freight train heading to India arrives at Qinzhou Port East Station on April 13. [Photo/gx.xinhuanet.com]

Currently, Guangxi is accelerating the expansion project of the Qinzhou Port East Station container freight station, which is expected to be completed in June. The project will further improve the railway transport capacity and lower logistics costs, as well as push forward the construction of the Belt and Road.