Iran invests $1b on launching port in Chabahar: Official
Iran has invested about $1 billion on developing the first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar, said general manager of Sistan-baluchestan Ports and Maritime Department.
Behrouz Baqaei told reporters on Monday that Chabahar Port enjoys a high geopolitical status in transit and transshipment to Central Asian states and Afghanistan at the lowest price, IRNA reported.
With the launching of the first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port, he noted, 100,000ton ship will be able to call at the port.
Baqaei stated that the development project of the port is in its final stages and President Hassan Rouhani will visit Chabahar to inaugurate it in the near future.
India has committed $500 million to Chabahar Port to open a trade and transport route to landlocked Afghanistan, as well as the resource-rich countries of Central Asia.
New Delhi plans to send seven shipments of wheat to Afghanistan via Chabahar until the end of January.
India is expanding its economic diplomacy in Afghanistan. The shipments are aimed at demonstrating the viability of the route, officials said, and the plan is to expand the flow of cargo before the port becomes fully operational by the end of next year.
“Things are moving quite well and as planned,” Saurabh Kumar, India’s ambassador to Iran, said in early November. Chabahar Port, located in the Sistanbaluchestan Province on the energy-rich Persian Gulf nations southern coast, lies outside the Persian Gulf and can be easily accessed from India’s western coast.