Tehran, Iran, July 23
By A. Shirazi- Trend
Hadi Haghshenas, the deputy at the Ports and Maritime Organization, said the strategic port of Chabahar in southeastern Iran is ready to transit goods from India to Afghanistan.
With the implementation of the first phase of Chabahar port, six million tons of goods will be transshipped from India port to Chabahar and then transited to Afghanistan, Haghshenas said, IRIB news agency reported.
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.
The port’s transport capacity has reached from 2.5 million tons to 8.5 million tons and the major portion of the goods will go to India and Afghanistan, he said.
A rail link between Chabahar and Zahedan and thereon to Afghanistan is a crucial part of India’s extra-regional connectivity ambitions over which Tehran, New Delhi and Kabul have signed a basic agreement.