Over the two-month period ending May 20, imports of essential goods via Iran's southeastern Chabahar Port increased ninefold compared with the corresponding period of last year to reach 541,000 tons, the head of Sistan-Baluchestan Ports and Maritime Organization said on Thursday.
“A total of 264,000 tons of the imported essential goods were granted inward processing procedure that allows conditional relief from import duties and taxes,” Behrouz Aqaei added.
Noting that loading and unloading operations at Chabahar Port improved by 54%, the official said the unloading of non-oil goods jumped 188% over the two-month period.
“This year, 800 trucks carried essential goods directly from cargo ships to various destinations on a single day, which was unprecedented in the history of the port,” the news website of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development quoted Aqaei as saying.
“For the first time, all five berths of Chabahar’s Shahid Beheshti Port have been serving eight vessels at the same time since last week,” Hossein Ebrahimi, an official with Sistan-Baluchestan Ports and Maritime Organization, said last Sunday.
The rising containerized traffic at Chabahar Port is a harbinger of economic development of Iran’s southeastern coasts, he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
Last Wednesday, a wheat shipment arrived at Chabahar from India on route to Afghanistan.
The 435 TEU containers holding 10,000 tons of wheat were delivered by the ship Kashan from India, as the second part of India’s new round of aid package to Afghanistan.
According to Aqaei, the consignment was part of India’s pledge to deliver 75,000 tons of wheat as humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, which will be transported via road to Milak, a border city on the Afghan border.
The first batch of 5,000 tons was delivered via Chabahar over 12 days, he added.
Chabahar is of high strategic importance as it is Iran’s only oceanic port, which bypasses the narrow chokepoint of Strait of Hormuz connected to the Persian Gulf.
Chabahar run by India Ports Global Limited is only 70 kilometers west of Gwadar Port, the starting point of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The China Overseas Port Holding Company operates Gwadar Port.
In May 2016, India and Iran signed an agreement under which India would refurbish one of the berths at Shahid Beheshti Terminal and rebuild a 600-meter-long container handling facility there.
In December last year, India took over operations of part of Shahid Beheshti Port.
The first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port development project was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan.
