TEHRAN: Iran’s road minister has called for expansion of cooperation between Iran and India in the fields of ports and shipping. On the sidelines of a visit to India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Planning Abbas Akhundi said “increased cooperation with the Indian port, as one of India’s largest ports, has been put on the agenda.” The official emphasized that the visit was made to hold talks with directors of the port as well as to investigate venues for bilateral cooperation; “during the visit, negotiations were held with a number of managers of Indian shipping lines over berthing of Iranian ships,” he asserted.
The member of the Iranian cabinet went on to note that during sanction years, giant ships would tie up in the countries located in the south of Persian Gulf from where goods were transferred to Iran by smaller vessels; “these measures proved to be extremely costly.”
Akhundi stressed that removal of sanctions and other marginal barriers has paved the way for immediate activation of North-South corridor as the best way to transfer goods to Russia adding “with the new path, transit time from India to Russia will be reduced by half.” Located east of Mumbai in Maharashtra, Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP), also known as Nhava Sheva, is the largest container port in India. JNP accounts for more than half of total container volumes handled at India’s 12 public ports and around 55 percent of the nation’s overall containerized ocean trade.
