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Chabahar Port
Why in News?
India wants Chabahar port to be included in the 13-nation International North South Transport Corridor that extends from India to Russia, and expand INSTC membership by including Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
Key Point in News?
- Pitching for Chabahar in the INSTC which goes via Iran’s biggest port Bandar Abbas, the land route via Kabul and Tashkent would form the INSTC’s “Eastern corridor”.
- “Establishing an eastern corridor through Afghanistan would maximise its potential. India has also proposed the inclusion of Chabahar in the INSTC
- “Chabahar Day” event organised as part of the 3-day “Maritime India” summit that was conducted virtually.
- The event saw participation from several regional officials including infrastructure Ministers from Afghanistan, Armenia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan.
- The Port has already handled 123 vessels and 18 lakh tons of cargo, said an official statement issued after the conference, which include trans-shipments from “Russia, Brazil, Thailand, Germany, Ukraine and the UAE”.
- Predicting that Chabahar will change the “geo-economy” of the region, Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammed Eslami called for assistance from India in developing the project, both through the provision of cranes and other equipment at the port as well as rail tracks, signal and switching equipment for the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project.
- Iran had also asked India to activate the $150-million credit line it offered during Iranian President Rouhani’s visit to Delhi in 2018 for the project.
- “India has participated in the first phase of development of Shahid Beheshti port of Chabahar and we are now witnessing the supplying of equipment.
- It deems necessary for the Indian operator to facilitate the process of supplying the remaining equipment.
Chabahar Port
- Chabahar Port is a seaport in Chabahar located 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.
INSTC
- The INSTC project was originally decided between India, Iran and Russia in 2000 in St Petersburg, and subsequently included 10 other central Asian and west Asian countries: Azerbaijan Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Oman, Syria and Bulgaria as an observer.
- It envisions a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail and road route for transporting freight, aimed at reducing the carriage cost between India and Russia by about 30%and bringing down the transit time from 40 days by more than half.
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