Moscow is weighing something ambitious: a rail line stretching all the way to the Indian Ocean. The idea comes from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who wants to sidestep the risks tied to two chokepoints that have become increasingly unreliable, the Bosphorus and the Strait of Hormuz. Conflicts across West Asia have already thrown a wrench into the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor, and this proposal is essentially a plan B.
Khusnullin laid out his thinking to TASS, the Russian news agency. A rail link running to the Indian Ocean, he said, is worth exploring seriously. His reasoning centers on the growing unpredictability around both the Bosphorus and Hormuz, which he suggested could force planners toward alternatives running through Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. His bottom line was simple: almost any route that eventually connects to India works.
“A rail link to the Indian Ocean should also be explored. Risks related to the Bosphorus and the Strait of Hormuz might require alternative routes: through Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Any options providing access to India are acceptable,” he said.
Easier Said Than Built
Here’s the catch. A railway crossing two continents and four nations isn’t just expensive and logistically brutal, it also runs into a thorny geopolitical problem. Any line reaching India would likely pass through Pakistan.
That means before a single track gets laid, India would need something close to an ironclad promise, guaranteed cooperation from Islamabad to keep both the rail infrastructure and the cargo moving through it safe. Given Pakistan’s tendency as a state, that’s a tall order.
Still Just an Idea, For Now
Khusnullin hasn’t offered a blueprint, a price tag or even a rough timeline. It’s a concept at this stage, nothing more concrete. But if it ever moved from talk to construction, the payoff would be significant: a direct overland freight corridor tying Russia to India, giving both countries a way around the maritime routes they currently depend on.
To put the scale of such a project in perspective, consider the Yiwu Madrid railway, currently the longest freight line of its kind anywhere on earth. It runs just over 13,000 kilometers, linking Yiwu in China to Madrid in Spain and cutting across eight countries along the way.
Why This Is Coming Up Now
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has run into serious trouble because of the ongoing standoff between the United States and Iran.
The chain of events started on February 28, when the US and Israel launched a military campaign against Iran, hitting major cities including Tehran. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps didn’t wait long to respond, announcing a sweeping retaliatory campaign against Israel and against American military sites scattered across Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Iran then went a step further, moving to block the Strait of Hormuz entirely for any ships tied to the United States, Israel, or other nations seen as backing the attacks against it. That’s no small disruption. The strait normally handles about a quarter of the world’s oil trade and roughly one fifth of global LNG shipments, which explains why even talk of an alternative route is drawing attention.