BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 13
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The Chabahar-Zahedan railway in Sistan and Baluchestan Province (southeastern Iran) can enable the transit of products worth some $80 billion, Behrouz Aghaei, director general of Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran’s branch in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Trend reports referring to the department’s website.
According to Aghaei, the commissioning of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway will connect the countries of the Gulf of Oman, the Indian Ocean and East Africa to the countries of CIS and Eastern Europe.
Aghaei added that the value of trade turnover of China and India with the CIS, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe, as well as the CIS countries with East Africa is more than $80 billion. The Chabahar-Zahedan railway may be the shortest and least costly transit route.
The director said that the railway will also help reduce Iran's transportation costs. Thus, currently more than 15 million tons of Iranian imports and exports are carried out by other vehicles, as there is no railway.
Aghaei noted that after the completion of the first phase of Shahid Beheshti port in Chabahar county, it was possible to load and unload 8.5 million tons of products a year. The port has projects for local and foreign investors.
Construction of the 720-kilometer Chabahar-Zahedan railway began in 2010. In 2014, the construction of this railway was accelerated by changing the contractor. So far, 17 trillion rials (about $404 million) has been spent on the construction of this railway, and it is estimated that 40 trillion rials (about $952 million) will be required to complete the project. After commissioning, 100 million tons of cargo will be transported by railway a year.
About 300 million euros have been allocated by the National Development Fund of Iran for the construction of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway.
A total of 164,800 million tons of products were loaded and unloaded at the Chabahar port of Sistan and Baluchestan Province (southern Iran) during the first three months of the current Iranian year (March 20-June 20, 2020).
During 3 months, 4,300 tons of products were loaded and 160,400 tons were unloaded at the port. About 1,940 tons of products were exported and 67,200 tons of products were imported through the Chabahar port during this period. As many as 815 tons of products were loaded and 16,800 tons were unloaded for transit through the Chabahar port in the 3 months.