TBILISI, December 16 – Heavy transport vehicles are queueing at the Upper Lars border crossing between Georgia and Russia, with long lines of trucks reportedly standing put on the North Ossetian side.
According to figures cited by the Russian business daily Kommersant, around 2,500 heavy trucks are currently waiting to cross the border. Of those, about 2,200 have registered in the electronic queue system, the paper reported, based on data provided by the press service of the North Ossetian government.
Over the past week, about 17,000 vehicles and more than 35,000 people crossed the border in both directions. The Upper Lars crossing is the main land route linking Georgia with Russia, and it is a vital trade route for a number of countries, including Turkey and Armenia.
Congestion at the point has become a recurring problem, leading to cargo companies avoiding the route due to congestion. In January this year, more than 2,000 vehicles were reported waiting at the crossing. The number rose to around 2,500 in July and stood at 980 vehicles in November.
Kommersant notes that daily traffic typically includes 500 to 600 trucks entering North Ossetia and 300 to 350 entering Georgia. Reconstruction work has improved the checkpoint’s capacity to up to 700 trucks per day in each direction, but nonetheless, in practice fewer than 300 trucks are able to pass through.
To manage the flow, North Ossetian authorities are limiting entry for trucks that do not have access to designated parking areas, and regional authorities plan to build two new parking facilities to help deal with the congestion. An electronic queue system is also used at Upper Lars border point.
