“Chabahar Day” conference was held in Mumbai, India two weeks ago; the Indian Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways [Shri Sujeet Kumar], who is due to visit Iran soon, announced that India seeks to turn Chabahar Port to a transit hub.
“Thanks to its strategic location, Chabahar will be central for global maritime trade,” he said.
Also present in this ceremony was the deputy head of Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran, Jalil Eslami. He underlined the point that Chabahar Port plays an important role in the economic development of both India and Iran.
“Iran has given special incentives to increase commercial cooperation between India and Iran through the port,” he was quoted as saying by ILNA.
All these statements come as more than 43 months ago, the steering and management of Shahid Beheshti Port of Chabahar was handed over to India Ports Global Limited. At present, instead of becoming the new hub for transit between India, Afghanistan and Central Asia and Russia, Chabahar has turned into a place for India to earn profit from the unloading of necessity goods and the loading of minerals and construction materials, according to ILNA.
Nineteen months ago, the news agency published documents revealing violations on the part of the PMO. The organization had approved an Iranian contractor, an appointee of the Indian company IPGL in Chabahar Port. The contractor was a company affiliated to the Mostazafan Foundation, which was introduced as the winner when the Indian company entered the tender and Sina Company officially announced it in the stock market, but since Sina Port and Maritime Services Development Company is on the list of sanctioned companies, the Indian operator was forced to change the tender result to avoid the complications regarding international shipping lines and companies. “Kayhan Shiran Zareen” company was named the winner of the tender. The company had been founded with an investment of 3 million rials [as little as $10!] a few days before being named the winner of the tender. It is still unbeknown how this company has been able to secure the needed certificates from the PMO to operate in such a strategic point.
Statistics show that international trade and transit of goods and containers of Shahid Beheshti Port fell by 80% as Kayhan Shiran Zareen Company started its operations there. Even the shipments of wheat donated by the Indian government to Afghanistan, which were previously sent from Iran’s Shahid Beheshti Port to Afghanistan, is now being transferred through Pakistan.
After 18 months since the debut of this company, the Indian side (IPGL) held another tender in Iran last month to decide on the continuation of cooperation with Kayhan Shiran Zareen Company or replacing it with other companies. Sina Port and Marine Services Development Company revealed on social media that it has won the competition with Fanavaran Company (affiliated to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines Group) and Beta Company (a subsidiary of Tidewater Middle East Co.) in Shahid Beheshti Port of Sistan-Baluchestan Province, which means Kayhan Shiran Zareen Company will continue to operate in Chabahar for the next three years.
The information ILNA has gathered shows that Kayhan Shiran Zareen Company has given IPGL a 99% share in the revenues of Shahid Beheshti Port’s unloading and loading operations. In other words Kayhan Shiran Zareen Company entered this tender with only a 1% share as 99% of the revenues gained by Shahid Beheshti Port will be handed over to the Indian operator for the next three years. This comes as the other two participants in the tender, namely Fanavaran Company and Beta Company, had offered 15% and 44% of the share of revenues, respectively, which is why the Indian side chose Kayhan Shiran Zareen Company again.
Now, the question is why should Indians receive 99% of loading, unloading and container revenues of Shahid Beheshti and still fail to deliver on their promises in Chabahar?
PMO statistics show that since 19 months ago, container and transit operations of Shahid Beheshti Port have decreased by 80%; the total container operations of the port between the years 2019 and 2020, when Kayhan Shiran Zareen had yet to enter the port, increased from 4,846 TEUs to 8,306 TEUs, i.e. a 70% growth, but in the years 2020 and 2021, container operations decreased by 80% to 1,450 TEUs.
Notably, this level of operations is attributable to the unloading of imported necessity goods and the loading of minerals and construction materials for export, which practically has nothing to do with the marketing by the Indians. The current traffic of ships and goods in Shahid Beheshti Port is solely thanks to the decision of the Iranian government to fulfill its social responsibility regarding the development of the east corridor.
At present, the revenues gained from the unloading of necessity goods and the loading of minerals and construction materials in Chabahar, with or without Indians, are practically dependent on domestic consumption and production market, these activities should not be a source of income for the Indian side.
During the period under review, particularly after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Indians have used routes other than Iran to transport their cargoes, an example of which is the transportation of rice, coffee and aquatics via China and Georgia to Russia.
This is despite the fact that Chabahar Port, in addition to the transit of goods between India and Afghanistan, saw export and transit of cargoes to Malaysia (Port Klang), Thailand (Bangkok, Laem Chabang and Lat Krabang), Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh), China (Tianjin and Xiamen, Qingdao) and India (Nhava Sheva -Mumbai and Mundra), but today, although the government and trade delegations of countries such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan visit Chabahar, there is no sign of an increase in international goods traffic there.
