Overall objective of the study

To support a coordinated, efficient, resilient and future-oriented maritime transport ecosystem along the TCTC through evidence-based fleet planning, operational coordination, digital transparency, rail-maritime interoperability, investment prioritisation and green-transition pathways.

Specific objectives of the study

1. Establish a verified inventory and performance baseline for vessels and relevant maritime assets serving the principal East-West Caspian routes.
2. Model current and future cargo demand and translate demand scenarios into vessel-capacity and multimodal-interface requirements.
3. Determine an optimal vessel mix and identify renewal, retrofit, replacement and deployment priorities under alternative demand and water-level scenarios.
4. Assess train-ferry, rail-wagon and port-rail interfaces and identify measures to reduce bottlenecks, turnaround time and service variability.
5. Design practical operational-coordination and digital-transparency measures for ports, shipping operators, railways and corridor institutions.
6. Identify and prioritise investment needs for vessels, port-side assets, equipment, sustainable fuels and bunkering, including potential industrial partnerships and financing pathways.
7. Assess feasible decarbonisation and climate-resilience measures, including the potential for a Caspian green-shipping-corridor pilot.
8. Review relevant governance and regulatory issues, including maritime facilitation and emissions standards, and prepare an actionable implementation roadmap.

Objective of the position

Assess maritime surveillance, vessel monitoring and reporting, communication and operational information systems, diagnose coordination gaps, and prepare implementable requirements for priority digital tools supporting predictable and efficient maritime and multimodal operations.

Scope of work

• Inventory and assess existing and planned VTS/VTMIS, AIS, MSW, aids-to-navigation and relevant communication systems, together with vessel reporting processes covering pre-arrival, arrival, stay in port and departure, and their interfaces with port authorities, harbour masters, customs, border authorities, terminals and other relevant stakeholders. Verify available information on differing system maturity across Baku, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and identify renewal, coverage, feasibility-study or interoperability needs where systems are absent, limited or outdated. Where AIS data are available, assess traffic density and traffic patterns relevant to operational coordination and navigational risk.
• Map current vessel scheduling, nomination, booking, slot allocation, cargo and wagon tracking, estimated-time updates, disruption management and information-exchange processes, and identify duplication, manual procedures, data gaps, weak interfaces and delay points among ports, shipping operators, railways, terminals and corridor bodies.
• Assess interoperability opportunities and constraints across national, port, railway, operator, vessel-reporting and maritime-surveillance systems, including data exchange, coverage and system-maturity considerations.
• Define priority user groups, operational use cases, data fields, data owners, update frequencies, interfaces and minimum performance requirements.
• Prepare preliminary functional requirements for possible shared schedules, vessel-availability views, estimated-time updates, cargo and wagon tracking integration and a corridor maritime dashboard.
• Recommend staged implementation, governance, ownership, access, data-sharing, cybersecurity, operation, maintenance and financing arrangements.
• Assess how digital formalities and relevant international maritime-facilitation practices could reduce administrative delays.
• Prepare indicative implementation costs or cost ranges, dependencies, procurement considerations and risks for priority solutions.
• Clarify that the assignment covers diagnosis and preliminary structuring, not software development or system procurement.

Deliverables

Contribution of the position to the study deliverables:

• Provide digital data and consultation requirements for D1.
• Contribute maritime-surveillance, vessel-reporting, AIS/VTS, communication-system, traffic-pattern and operational-process findings to D2.
• Lead D5, including mapping of key operational and digital information flows, inventory and assessment of relevant surveillance, vessel-reporting and communication systems, AIS-based traffic-pattern analysis where data are available, coordination gaps, priority use cases, functional and data requirements, governance options and staged implementation recommendations.
• Provide digitalisation, governance and facilitation inputs to D6, D7 and D8.

Duration and schedule
Eight months from the start date, up to 30 expert-days. Delivery weeks are counted from the assignment start date. The detailed schedule and allocation of inputs will be confirmed in the inception report.

The assignment will combine desk review, structured data collection, stakeholder interviews, operator consultations, technical port visits where authorised, scenario analysis, international benchmarking and validation. Travel and meetings will be undertaken only under the agreed work plan and with prior approval of the TCTC Capacity Development Programme Team Leader.

Reporting and coordination
Reporting line: Maritime Transport and Fleet Optimisation Team Leader.

The expert will work as part of one integrated team comprising the Maritime Transport and Fleet Optimisation Team Leader, Transport Demand Modeller, Naval Architect and Vessel Technology Expert, Maritime Digitalisation Expert, Kazakhstan Maritime Expert and Turkmenistan Maritime Expert. All experts must use common definitions, scenarios, datasets and reporting formats and must share working materials in sufficient time for integration and peer review.

The expert will provide editable source material, data tables, calculations and presentation inputs and will revise contributions in response to consolidated comments.

The expert is required to:

• Deliver assigned inputs on time and to a standard suitable for direct integration into formal programme deliverables.
• Ensure that quantitative claims and recommendations are traceable to documented sources, calculations and assumptions.
• Coordinate proactively with other experts and resolve inconsistencies across technical workstreams.
• Provide practical and proportionate recommendations that identify responsible actors, prerequisites, sequencing and risks.
• Participate in coordination calls, technical reviews, stakeholder consultations and validation activities as requested.
• Maintain professional independence, confidentiality and respectful engagement with public and private stakeholders.