Tehran, Iran, July 26
By A. Shirazi - Trend:
CEO of Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran Mohammad Rastad said the state-owned Indian company India Ports Global Limited (IPGL), which is developing the port of Chabahar, will officially start its work at the port in the near future.
IPGL will get the Chabahar port started soon, Rastad told Iranian economic daily Donyaye Eghtesad on July 26.
Chabahar provides India with an easier land-sea route to Afghanistan. In November, India sent its first cargo of wheat to Afghanistan through Chabahar in what appeared to be a run dry of a multi-modal connectivity route. The cargo was shipped from India’s western port of Kandla, unloaded at Chabahar and eventually taken to Afghanistan’s Nimroz province by trucks.
A rail link between Chabahar and Zahedan and thereon to Afghanistan is a crucial part of India’s ambitious extra-regional connectivity ambitions over which Tehran, New Delhi and Kabul have signed a basic agreement.
Rastad added, “The Indian firm, based on the terms of the contract, will strategically help boost transit from the port by supplying equipment”.
The official went to say that four investment agreements have been signed with the private sector and foreign countries in a bid to develop the Chabahar port and facilitate the export of goods from the zone.
Earlier, he said that Tehran had signed an agreement with Stockholm whereby Sweden would clean-up oil spill off the country’s coasts as part a package of investment in the country’s strategic port of Chabahar.