Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday inaugurated the first phase of the Chabahar Port that will open a new strategic transit route for Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. India is likely to manage and operate the port till the second phase is complete.
Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan represented India at the inauguration of the Phase 1 of the Shahid Beheshti Port at Chabahar. The inauguration was also attended by dignitaries from Qatar, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries.
The $340 million project was constructed by a Revolutionary Guard-affiliated company, Khatam al-Anbia, the largest Iranian contractor of Government construction projects. It also involved several subcontractors, including an Indian company, and brings the capacity of the port to 8.5 million tonnes of cargo annually, from the previous 2.5 million tonnes.
Iran’s Parliament had recently ratified the Trilateral Transit and Trade Agreement signed in May 2016 between India, Iran and Afghanistan. “The completion of the internal procedures on the ratification process by Iran is expected to lead to full and early operationalisation of the Transit and Trade arrangement between the three countries though the Chabahar Port,” Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
The Ministers of India, Iran and Afghanistan also held talks to speed up the efforts to operationalise the complete port at the earliest. It is expected that a trilateral coordination meeting of senior officials will soon be held. “The three sides reviewed and positively assessed the progress in the development of Chabahar Port and reiterated their commitment to complete and operationalise the port at the earliest that would contribute to bilateral and regional trade and economic development and also provide alternate access to landlocked Afghanistan to regional and global markets,” the MEA added.
For India, the investment in Chabahar was important since the port will bolster a trade route for land-locked Central Asian countries that would bypass rival Pakistan. last year, India committed up to $500 million for the development of the Chabahar port along with associated roads and rail lines. And last month, New Delhi shipped its first cargo of wheat to Afghanistan through the Iranian port, part of 130,000 tons that India plans to export to Afghanistan.
The construction at the Shahid Beheshti Port includes five new piers, two of them for containers allowing cargo vessels with up to 100,000-tonne captaincy to dock. It is also expected to make Chabahar, Iran’s closest sea link to the Indian Ocean, a rival to Gwadar Port, some 80 kilometres away across the border in Pakistan, which Pakistan has been building with Chinese investment. Rouhani, however, downplayed the rivalry in his inauguration speech and said the port will bring “more engagement and unity” among regional countries. Rouhani added Iran also plans to link the port to the country’s railroad network to facilitate transit of goods to neighbouring landlocked Central Asian countries, as well as open a route to eastern and northern Europe through Russia.
Ahead of the inauguration, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met her Iranian counterpart Javed Zarif in Tehran on Saturday to review the implementation of the Chabahar Port project, among other issues.