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Sam Chambers (Splash 247.com) May 14, 2024
India’s shipping minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, was in Iran yesterday for the official signing of a 10-year contract to jointly run Chabahar port, a giant complex that has been on the drawing board for more than a decade.
At the event, Sonowal’s Iranian counterpart, Mehrdad Bazrpash, hinted that the two countries could reestablish a joint venture shipping line. Through to 2013, the two countries used to run Irano Hind Shipping together, a company that was eventually disbanded as sanctions rained in on Tehran.
On signing the 10-year port agreement, Sonowal said, “Today is a historic day for the maritime sector of the region as India and Iran signed this long term agreement on Chabahar Port heralding a new age of trade, marine cooperation as well as transhipment while boosting trilateral trade among India, Iran and Afghanistan.”
Located in Sistan-Baluchistan province on Iran’s southwestern coast, Chabahar is located on the Arabian Sea with easy access from India’s west coast. For shippers from landlocked Afghanistan, it gives an alternative outlet to the Pakistani ports of Gwader and Karachi.
Chabahar will be run by India Ports Global (IPGL) and an Iranian state-backed port operator. IPGL first took over operations of the port at the end of 2018.
IPGL, which is 100% owned by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, has also recently won the rights to operate another overseas port at Sittwe in Myanmar.