Chabahar Port
Chabahar Port is a seaport located in Chabahar in southeastern Iran, on the Gulf of Oman. It serves as Iran's only oceanic port, and consists of two separate ports named Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti, each of which has five berths. It is only about 170 kilometres west of the Pakistani port of Gwadar.
Development of the port was first proposed in 1973 by the last Shah of Iran, though development was delayed by the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The first phase of the port was opened in 1983 during the Iran–Iraq War as Iran began shifting seaborne trade east towards the Pakistani border in order to decrease dependency on ports in the Persian Gulf, which were vulnerable to attack by the Iraqi Air Force.
India and Iran first agreed to plans to further develop Shahid Beheshti port in 2003, but did not do so on account of sanctions against Iran. As of 2016, the port has ten berths. In May 2016, India and Iran signed a bilateral agreement in which India would refurbish one of the berths at Shahid Beheshti port, and reconstruct a 600 meter long container handling facility at the port. The port is partly intended to provide an alternative for trade between India and Afghanistan as it is 800 kilometers closer to the border of Afghanistan than Pakistan's Karachi port. The port handled 2.1 million tons of cargo in 2015, which was planned to be upgraded to handle 8.5 million tons by 2016, and to 86 million tons in the future.
In October 2017, India's first shipment of wheat to Afghanistan was sent through the Chabahar Port. In December 2018, India took over the port's operations. Following the re-imposition of sanctions against Iran, foreign companies became reluctant to participate in the port's expansion, and only 10% of the port's 8.5 million-ton total capacity was utilized in 2019. Sanctions also played a role in reducing India's involvement and investment in the US$1.6 billion [|Chabahar–Zahedan railway].
Location
The port of Chabahar is located on the Makran coast of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, next to the Gulf of Oman and at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz. It is the only Iranian port with direct access to the Indian Ocean. Being close to Afghanistan and the Central Asian countries of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and others, it has been termed the "Golden Gate" to these landlocked countries.Chabahar is away from Zahedan, the capital of the Sistan and Baluchistan province, away from Milak, the closest city to the Afghan border, and away from Sarakhs on the Turkmen border.
The marine distance to Dubai is, to Karachi in Pakistan is, and to Mumbai in India is . Pakistan's deep sea port at Gwadar is also on the Makran coast, at a distance of a mere 76 nautical miles. Gwadar also claims to provide access to Central Asia, and comparisons between the two ports are frequently made by analysts.
Because 90 percent of Iran's population is concentrated in the western part of the country, the eastern part is relatively less developed. Iran is intending to change that with the development around Chabahar port, with a free trade zone and road and rail links between Chabahar and Central Asia. Its plan is to use Chabahar port as the gateway to Central Asia and to maintain the Bandar Abbas port, which currently handles 85% of Iran's seaborne trade, as a hub for trade with Russia and Europe.
The highly congested Bandar Abbas port is not a deep water port and cannot handle the 250,000-ton oceangoing cargo ships. At present, such ships dock in the United Arab Emirates and the cargo is transferred to smaller, 100,000-ton ships for onward shipment to Iran. This makes Iran dependent on the UAE for shipments and represents a loss of revenue. Unlike Bandar Abbas, Chabahar has the ability to handle standard cargo ships.
History
A former port named Tis in Chabahar's neighborhood dates back to the Sasanian times, and was known to Ptolemy as "Tesa".Alberuni wrote that the sea coast of India commences with Tis.
The Portuguese forces under Afonso de Albuquerque gained control of Chabahar and Tis, staying there until 1621. The British, and later the Portuguese in the 17th century entered this region.
Chabahar dates back to around 1970, when it was declared a municipality, and large port projects were started by order of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. The Shah planned to construct a $600 million naval base at Chabahar, mostly employing American companies as contractors. The American naval officials held talks with their Iranian counterparts on securing an "option" to operate out of Chabahar in the event of an emergency. However, in 1977, the Shah got strapped for cash, caught in a tug of war between the OPEC and western oil companies over oil prices, and the construction of Chabahar base was postponed. Soon afterwards, the Shah was overthrown in the 1979 Iranian revolution.
After the Iranian revolution, the foreign companies left the projects and Iranian public companies linked to the Ministry of Jahad-e Sazandegi took them over. The Iran–Iraq War caused Chabahar to gain in logistical and strategic importance. War brought insecurity to the Strait of Hormuz and ships were unable to enter the Persian Gulf. Accordingly, Chabahar became a major port during the war.
The Chabahar port actually contains two separate ports called Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti. Between 1982 and 1983, Iran constructed four berths at Shahid Kalantari and four berths at Shahid Beheshti. Two larger berths, and meters long, were constructed in 1997 and 2004 respectively.
In 2013, India approved a cabinet proposal to invest $115 into the port.
In August 2017, Indian Union Minister of Ports, Nitin Gadkari, informed at an event in Iran that the civil work at Chabahar port developed by India is complete, and the Indian government is ordering INR 400 crores worth of mechanised equipment and cranes, and the port will be operational in 2018 to export Indian wheat to Afghanistan. after meeting with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, he said "now, we are building a railway line in Iran. From Chabhar, we can go to Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Russia."
In August 2017, India Global Ports Limited had applied for the permission to run the Chabahar port in the interim, while Iran has already completed the construction of jetty and IGPL will build two new terminals, one for the containers and another for the multi-purpose ships. In October 2017, IGPL had already started constructing the terminals after placing order for the construction equipment.
On 29 October 2017, the first shipment through the port was sent from India en route to Afghanistan. To demonstrate the viability of the route, seven shipments of wheat as aid to Afghanistan were planned to be sent by India by the end of January 2018.
On 3 December 2017, the first phase of the port construction was inaugurated by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
In January 2018, Iran and India signed an agreement worth $2 billion for cooperation in the rail sector. A part of the agreement pertains to a memorandum of understanding worth $600 million for Iran to purchase locomotives and freight cars from India.
In November 2018, The United States has exempted the multinational Chabahar port project from its sanctions against Iran due to its economic importance to Afghanistan.
In February 2019, Afghanistan Launches New Export Route To India Through Chabahar Port. At the inauguration of the new export route, officials said 23 trucks carrying 57 tonnes of dried fruits, textiles, carpets and mineral products were dispatched from the southwestern Afghan city of Zaranj to Iran's Chabahar port. The consignment will be shipped to Mumbai.
On 14 July 2020, Iran proceeded with the construction of the Chabahar-Zahedan rail link independently, citing delays in the proposed funding from India. Iran issued a statement, clarifying that while the funding of the rail link by IRCON had come up in negotiations, it had not been agreed upon between India and Iran.
In late February 2024, the Taliban-led government of Afghanistan announced an investment of $35 million in the Chabahar port in southern Iran. According to The Diplomat, cooperation between Afghanistan and Iran can provide the Taliban regime with more policy options and reduce its dependence on Pakistan.
In 2026, India was reported to have exited the port citing the American tariffs, however, the Indian government denied such reports and added that they are in talks with the US for extension of the waiver. One government source added, "India has no choice but to exit the Chabahar port".
India–Iran–Afghanistan partnership
During the 1990s Iran and India, along with Russia, collaborated in backing the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan against the Pakistan-backed Taliban. At this time, Iran invited India to develop the Chabahar port to obtain ready access to Afghanistan. In 1997, a trilateral agreement was signed with Turkmenistan to expand trade into Central Asia and, in 2000, another agreement with Russia to provide seamless transport between India and Europe via an International North-South Transport Corridor.After the American presence in Afghanistan, India, Iran and Afghanistan got together in January 2003, agreeing on a joint development of transportation links to Afghanistan. India agreed to expand the Chabahar port and to lay a railway track between Chabahar and Zaranj. Iran has completed 70 percent of the first phase of the Chabahar project at a cost of $340 million. India has spent $134 million during 2005–2009 to construct a road from Delaram in Afghanistan to Zaranj at the Iran–Afghanistan border. Iran has also built a roadway between Milak, close to Zaranj, and Chabahar passing through Zahedan and Iranshahr. Through Milak, Zaranj and Deleram, connectivity has been established to the Afghan 'garland road', which connects the major Afghan cities Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif. In March 2012, ships from India docked at Chabahar carrying 100,000 tonnes of wheat under humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. The Afghan businesses have begun to shift from the Karachi port to Chabahar port for transit.
In 2016, India signed a deal with Iran entailing $8 billion investment in Chabahar port and industries in Chabahar Special Economic Zone, including an aluminium smelter and a urea making facility, at Chabahar port is being developed was a transit route to Afghanistan and central Asia. India has already built a 240-km road connecting Afghanistan with Iran. Also in planning is a rail route connecting Chabahar with the India-promoted $11-billion Hajigak iron and steel mining project in central Afghanistan, as seven Indian companies in 2011 acquired rights to mine central Afghanistan's Hajigak region, which contain Asia's largest deposit of iron ore. The Government of India has pledged to Afghanistan to spend $2bn in developing supporting infrastructure including Chabahar to Hajigaj railway. All this will bring cargo to Bandar Abbas port and Chabahar port, and free Kabul from its dependence on Pakistan to reach the outer world, giving India access to Afghanistan and beyond to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Europe via 7,200-km-long multi-modal North–South Transport Corridor.
However, without further development of the Chabahar port, these road links would remain underutilized. Despite intentions, India's involvement in the infrastructure development within Iran has been minimal, possibly due to the Western pressure to apply sanctions. Iran is also believed to have a shown a preference for Iranian contractors instead of Indians. The initiative was restarted in August 2012 in a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of a Non-Aligned Summit.