Iran hopes to soon finalize contract with India on Chabahar

The head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) says a revised contract with India on development projects in the Sea of Oman port of Chabahar could be finalized within a month.

Ali Akbar Safaei said on Wednesday that Iran and India have to agree on one remaining clause in the revised contract on Chabahar to be able to make it final. 

Safaei said the new contract would enable India to complete its $85-million investment in Chabahar’s Shahid Beheshti terminal.

He said the Indian side has already supplied $25 million worth of equipment and services, including gantry cranes, to the terminal under a build-operate-transfer contract signed in 2016.

“The long-term contract will become final in less than a month and it would serve the interests of the country,” the PMO chief was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian also expressed hope on Wednesday that the contract with India on the development of Chabahar could become final soon.

In a meeting with Iran’s ambassador to India Iraj Elahi in Tehran, Amirabdollahian said some good progress has been made in recent negotiations with India on Chabahar.

India’s contribution to development projects in Chabahar is part of New Delhi’s policy to use Iranian transportation networks to ease its trade access to Afghanistan and landlocked countries in the Central Asia region.

India also views the development of Chanahar, which is Iran’s only ocean port, as a project that can rival China’s investment in Pakistan’s Gwadar region.

Iran has been unsatisfied with the pace of development works by Indian companies in Chabahar while India has blamed US sanctions for the delays.