India to Russia cargo routes: logistics guide for exporters in 2025
Trade between Russia and India has been steadily on the rise. Data from India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry for the financial year ended 31 March, 2024 showed that exports of Indian goods to Russia had grown by more than 30%. Meanwhile, a third of the cargoes that passed through Murmansk Commercial Seaport in the first seven months of 2023 were headed for India. In this article, we look at what Indian entrepreneurs should know about the existing logistical options.
Quick facts
How India–Russia fits into India’s shipping routes
Shipping routes from India to Russia principally comprise three main sea corridors that branch out from the country’s major loading ports—JNPT/Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Cochin and Chennai—to the Russian gateways of St Petersburg, Novorossiysk and Vladivostok. This is where current Indian shipping routes and Far East links intersect with Russia‑bound flows.
3 ways to deliver a cargo
Cargoes travelling between India and Russia are mainly transported by sea or by air. Since 2022, there’s been the option to combine sea and land routes, but logisticians say this remains a rare choice. When choosing an India to Russia route, exporters usually compare classic maritime options, Far-Eastern routes, and multimodal INSTC options.
Sea routes
According to transport and logistics company representatives, the most widely used sea route from India to Russia for container traffic is via the Suez Canal, with goods subsequently unloaded in Novorossiysk or St Petersburg. This option has the highest number of operators and the lowest prices, and also operates in reverse as the sea route from Russia to India.
Specialists at Russia’s Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) explain that the main advantage of the Novorossiysk route is the shorter transit time, which allows for more frequent dispatches. “A vessel takes on average 17 days to travel from Mundra to Novorossiysk. If the cargo goes from India to Novorossiysk via the transshipment port where the container is transferred from one vessel to another, delivery time increases by about 10 days.”
FESCO specialists note that the second option via the Suez Canal to St Petersburg takes around 23 days. Zakhudalin cautions that the popularity of this classic route results in a dire shortage of available space on cargo vessels.
Russia and India are linked by another sea route: the eastern route. This route takes cargoes from India to ports in the Russian Far East from where they are delivered by rail to the European part of the country. Mikhail Zvyagintsev, founder of logistics company TEK Operator, says that delivery by this route is more expensive and the transit time is longer, so the eastern route is only used when other routes are problematic.
“There is currently not a single service offering a direct line along this route. Cargoes go via transshipment ports in China or the South Asian countries, and the estimated delivery time is approximately 28 days,” FESCO representatives explain. “With the help of our partner shipping lines, we deliver cargoes from India to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam or to Shanghai in China. We then transfer the containers to our own vessels and forward them to Vladivostok with our regular sea services in the Far East.”
Typical India to Russia sea routes:
Delivery costs for a 40-foot-high cube container from India to Moscow via different routes (late-2025 indicative ranges)
Source: Novelco
Due to the volatile shipping environment in the Red Sea, since late-2023 through 2025 many carriers periodically bypass Suez via the Cape of Good Hope, adding roughly 10–14 days to the journey and making schedules and rates for the India to Russia ship route hard to predict.
For reference, Drewry’s World Container Index for the week of 20 Nov 2025 was about $1,852 per 40’ container globally.
If containers require transshipment in the Mediterranean, Turkey or the UAE before arriving in Russia, both time and cost usually increase due to the extra handling and queueing risk.
Compared with sea routes from India to other countries, India–Russia shipments are more sensitive to capacity swings, so exporters should plan for extra lead-time buffers.
Note on transit time: the India to Russia ship time is typically 17–23 days to western Russian ports via Suez, or ~28 days to Vladivostok via Asian transshipment, depending on routing and detours.
North–South Corridor
Another option for cargo delivery from India to Russia is the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC). This has been developed over two decades and is intended to connect Russia to India, the Persian Gulf countries, and the South Asian countries via Iran. In the case of exports from India, cargoes go via the Persian Gulf to Iran and are then transported by rail or road across the country to the Caspian Sea, where they are loaded onto a vessel headed for one of Russia’s Caspian Sea ports.
The INSTC offers three routes from Russia:
International North–South Transport Corridor
Source: Russian Railways (RZD), Valdai Club
India to Russia train route via INSTC
In practice, the India to Russia train route refers to rail legs inside Iran/Caspian/Russia after sea delivery to Iran; there is no single uninterrupted railway from India to Russia.
Logistics companies see the INSTC as the most complex and elaborate of the routes connecting India and Russia. Its main problems, according to the experts, are:
A key bottleneck remains the Rasht–Astara rail link in Iran (the missing INSTC segment): in 2025, this is still under development, so corridor reliability depends on the completion of this 162-km leg.
Zvyagintsev concludes: “So far, sending goods from India to Russia via Iran is seen as a backup option in case the main sea route via the Suez Canal stops functioning.”
From India via the Arctic
Russia and India have been discussing the creation of yet another coastal route—the Northern Sea Route (NSR). This will reduce the time needed to transport cargo between Chennai and Vladivostok significantly.
Russia is developing this Arctic thoroughfare by modernising ports and adding to its icebreaker fleet. The NSR is almost half the distance of other sea routes from Europe to the Far East (e.g. the distance from St Petersburg to Vladivostok via the Suez Canal is 23,200 kilometres, while via the NSR, it’s 14,300 kilometres). In 2023, the Northern Sea Route transported a record-breaking 36 million tonnes of cargo. The goal for 2035 is 220 million tonnes. In 2024, NSR cargo throughput rose to about 37.9 million tonnes, and Rosatom expects roughly 20% growth in 2025. Still, there is no regular liner service between India and Russia via the NSR, and navigation windows plus icebreaker escort keep the route seasonal and price-sensitive.
The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest coastal route between Western Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region.
Using the Northern Sea Route
Source: Rosatom, mass media publications
The main drawback of the Northern Sea Route is the harsh climate. Summer temperatures in the Laptev Sea don’t rise above 1 degree Celsius, which shortens the navigation period. The NSR could only function all the year round if the route were provided with nuclear icebreakers, which would increase transportation costs. So far, there are no regular services or established prices for the NSR.
“The Northern Sea Route is in its infancy and there are still plenty of difficulties to be overcome, but its importance will grow with time, especially given the influence of climate change,” Zakhudalin says.
Eastern Maritime Corridor from India to Vladivostok: as of 24 November, 2025 the Chennai–Vladivostok corridor is operational, with an expected transit time of about 24 days, strengthening the India-Russia trade route options for Far-East cargo.
Air routes
Direct and connecting flights from India to Russia are currently operated by Russian airline Aeroflot, and also by Oman Air, Emirates, Air Arabia, Fly Dubai, Turkish Airlines, Mahan Air, Uzbekistan Airways, and others. With a direct flight, a shipment will reach its recipient in Russia within 24 to 48 hours. According to Aleksey Zakhudalin, head of logistics at Service Logistic Company (SLC), a connecting flight and cargo transfer (which normally takes place in the UAE, Sri Lanka, Oman, Turkey, Iran, or Uzbekistan) increase this time frame by 48 to 72 hours.
New Delhi Airport is usually used when shipping from northern India, while Mumbai Airport is used from the west of the country. Zakhudalin highlights that Indian cargo shippers may only send cargoes from the airport designated when they register. One other thing he considers particular to air transportation between India and Russia is that the distance between the place of dispatch and the airport can exceed a thousand kilometres, which must be taken into account when dealing with perishable goods, for example.
The cost of air cargo delivery from New Delhi and Mumbai starts at $2.50. When choosing a delivery company, consider India Post: its private service fees are the lowest.
A price of $2.50 per kg remains at the lower end of the range, while typical late-2025 market ranges are about $2.50–$5 per kg depending on commodity and available space.
Forwarders also flag a potential capacity squeeze in 2025–2027 due to Boeing/Airbus wide-body freighter delays, which may keep rates firm in peak weeks.
Conclusions
According to Zakhudalin, there are three popular sea cargo delivery options between India and Russia. First, there is the route from large Indian ports, such as Nhava Sheva or Mundra, across the Arabian and Red Seas, passing through the Egyptian port of Damietta in the Nile delta and eventually ending up in St Petersburg. Secondly, we have the route that starts at the Indian port of Cochin, passes through Jebel Ali in the UAE, and also terminates in St Petersburg. The same two routes are used to deliver cargoes to Novorossiysk. As for the Russian Far East route, the usual ports of departure are Nhava Sheva, Mundra, or Chennai, with Vladivostok Sea Fishing Port and Vladivostok Commercial Port being the usual points of arrival.
Nevertheless, Zakhudalin cautions that despite the popularity of sea routes to St Petersburg and Novorossiysk, it would be erroneous to see them as the only alternatives or assume that they carry the majority of goods. The downside of these options being so popular is the lack of cargo carrying capacity. Therefore, a major part of Indian cargoes headed for the European part of Russia passes through the ports of Vladivostok.
For exporters, balancing classic Suez sailings with Far-East options and INSTC backups helps optimise the Russia to India trade route and vice-versa.
FAQ
The main India to Russia sea route runs from west-coast Indian ports (JNPT/Mundra/Cochin), through the Arabian and Red Seas and the Suez Canal, to St Petersburg or Novorossiysk.
The typical India to Russia ship time is about 17–23 days on direct Suez services or ~28 days on Far-East routings via transshipment, and can rise by ~10–14 days when carriers detour around Africa.
Most cargo uses shipping routes from India starting at JNPT/Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Cochin or Chennai, depending on the Russian destination port.
There is no single end-to-end railway from India to Russia; rail is used as part of the INSTC after sea delivery to Iran, as described above under the India to Russia train route.
Transporting goods from India to Russia by road for the entirety of the route is not realistic for regular freight because it requires multiple border crossings through sensitive regions; exporters rely on maritime routes, the multimodal INSTC, or sea+rail via Vladivostok.
There is no single best India to Russia trade route: shippers usually book Suez first, keep Far-East routings as a capacity hedge, and view the INSTC as a backup if Suez schedules are disrupted.