Iran’s Chabahar Port to be operational by 2019
- By Web Desk -
- Jun 23, 2018
NEW DELHI: India declares on Friday, to make Chabahar Port in Iran operational by 2019, regardless of threat of transformed US sanctions against Tehran.
Chabahar port complex in Iran is a new transportation access strip for land-locked Afghanistan, which may result in opening way for millions of dollars in trade and cut its dependence on Pakistan.
Chahbahar Port is located on the Gulf of Oman and is considered to be Iran’s only oceanic port consisting of two separate ports named Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti each of them containing five berths. It provides Iran access to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean without having to cross through the bottlenecked Strait of Hormuz. It also opens up doors to take advantage of Indian infrastructure advancements that promise reliable connectivity to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
The primary reason given for development of Chahbahar was to create an alternative route for maritime trade between India and Afghanistan.
According to Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari, the port would offer easy accessibility to CIS countries.
Gadkari was on a two-day visit to Tajikistan for representing India at a global conference on “International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development”.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear deal and penalize financial institutions for doing business with Tehran is clouding Chabahar’s viability.