Referring to the significant rise in the import of essential good via the port in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan since last October despite the outbreak of coronavirus, Behrouz Aqaei added that 627,365 tons of essential goods have been imported through Chabahar since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 20).
Chabahar is of strategic importance for Iran as it is the country’s only oceanic port, which bypasses the narrow chokepoint of Strait of Hormuz connected to the Persian Gulf.
The first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port development project was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan.
Chabahar consists of two separate port terminals: Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti. The opening of the first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port (out of five phases defined for the project), which has tripled its capacity to 8.5 million tons (equal to that of all the northern ports of the country), allows the docking of super-large container ships (between 100,000 DWT and 120,000 DWT) and increase India’s connectivity with Afghanistan.