NEW DELHI: India is determined to develop the 89-million-tonne port in Iran’s Chabahar, reported Iran Daily citing a top Indian government official.
The Chabahar port is a strategic one for India as it will help the country’s goods to reach four major cities in Afghanistan – Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif – without touching Pakistan.
N Muruganandam, joint secretary of Indian Ports, headed a delegation that visited Iran recently to study the details of an agreement signed earlier between the Iranian Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and Indian Ministry of Shipping, reported Iran Daily.
The Indian delegation studied ways to connect Chabahar Free Trade Zone to Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti ports and establish a company, the rate of tariffs, workforce recruitment and the completion date of the first phase of the development project of Shahid Beheshti port, according to the report.
Siavash Rezvani, director general of Sistan-Baluchestan province’s Ports and Maritime Organisation, said the manufacturing engineering operations of Shahid Beheshti port’s development project and construction of its electricity network will be completed by the second half of 2017.
In the year to mid-March 2015, 2.1 million tonnes of goods including soy beans, wheat and minerals were loaded and unloaded at the port.
