Iran Transport Minister to Visit India
EghtesadOnline: Heading a nine-member delegation of representatives of private companies, Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi is scheduled to visit India on Wednesday.
Akhoundi plans to meet his Indian counterpart, Nitin Gadkari, to discuss ways of improving marketing for the first phase of Chabahar’s Shahid Beheshti Port in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.
He will also visit Mundra Port, the largest private port of India located along the northern shores of the Gulf of Kutch in the state of Gujarat, IRNA reported.
The first phase of the strategic Iranian port, which India helped develop, was inaugurated by President Hassan Rouhani on Dec. 3. A total of $1 billion is being invested in the first phase of the Chabahar development project, a joint international project billed as an “International Gateway” by Iranian officials who have invested $403 million from the National Development Fund of Iran in the project and are set to invest $85 million to complete the project, Financial Tribune reported.
Chabahar is Iran’s only oceanic port town and consists of two separate ports named Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti.
The opening of the first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port (out of five phases defined for the project), has tripled its capacity to 8.5 million tons (equal to that of all the northern ports of the country). It will allow the docking of super-large container ships (between 100,000 DWT and 120,000 DWT) and increase India’s connectivity with Afghanistan.