Background
- Chabahar port is a seaport in Chabahar and located in southern Iran on the Gulf of Iran.
- It consist of two separate ports-
- Shahid Kalantari
- Shahid Behashti and Each has five berths
- Development of port was first proposed in 1973 by tha last Shah of Iran,development was delayed by 1979 Iranian revolution.
- First phase of 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 is vulnerable to attack by the Iraqi Air force.
India's Role
- India and Iran first agreed to plans to further develop Shahid Beheshti port in 2003,but did not do so on account of Sanction against Iran.
- In May 2016, India and Iran signed a bilateral agreement in which india would refurbish one of the berths at shahid Beheshti port,and constructed a 600 m long container handling facility at the port.
- October 2017,India's first shipment of wheat to Afghanistan was sent through the Chabahar port.
- Port is partly intended to provide an alternative for trade between India and Afghanistan as it is 800 kms 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 handled 8.5 million tons by 2016, and to 86 million tons in the future.
- Sanctions also played a role in reducing India's involvement and investment in the US doller 1.6 billion Chabahar Zahedan railway.