The track-laying operation for the railroad connecting the southeastern port city of Chabahar to the eastern city of Zahedan near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan will be launched on July 7, in a ceremony attended by Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami.
Chabahar-Zahedan railroad will include 34 stations and link the cities of Chabahar, Tis, Konarak, Nikshahr, Iranshahr, Khash and Zahedan along the way.
With the new railroad track in place, 927,000 passengers and 2.8 million tons of cargo will be transported annually by the year ending March 2023.
The average speed of freight trains on this route will be 120 km per hour whereas passenger trains will run at 160 km per hour.
It will create jobs for 13,000, of whom 3,000 will be directly engaged in the project.
As planned, the track-laying operation of 150 kilometers of Chabahar-Zahedan railroad will be completed before the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2021), the news portal of the ministry, News.mrud.ir, reported.
The 628-kilometer railroad project from Chabahar to Zahedan got off the ground in the fiscal 2010-11, only to come to a halt for three years due to the lack of financial resources. The execution of the project resumed in the year ending March 2015, after a change of contractor.
The railroad to Zahedan is crucial, as it is vital for connectivity to landlocked Afghanistan via Chabahar. The port in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province is strategically important for India too, allowing it access to Afghanistan while bypassing Pakistan.
After connecting Iran’s only oceanic port of Chabahar to Zahedan, the railroad will be linked to Zaranj in Afghanistan. When the Afghan cargo arrives in Zahedan, it can be transported by a 1,380-km railroad to Chabahar and then shipped to India.
According to Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the head of Plan and Budget Organization, announced that the three sections of the railroad project will be inaugurated by June 21.
“This railroad project consists of three sections: Chabahar-Iranshahr, Iranshahr-Khash and Khash-Zahedan. Khash-Zahedan Section will be completed by Feb. 10, 2021, during the 10-Day Dawn [Fajr] festivities that mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and by March 20, 2021, Chabahar-Iranshahr will be inaugurated and hopefully the remaining section will be launched by June 21, 2021. A total of €300 million have been allocated to this project from the resources of the National Development Fund of Iran,” Nobakht was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The withdrawal from NDFI came after Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei authorized the government to spend funds needed to complete the rail project from the sovereign wealth fund.
India has also agreed to contribute to the construction of the railroad from Chabahar to Zahedan. A memorandum of understanding worth $2 billion was signed by Iran and India’s Railway Ministry in February 2019 during President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to India.
Khaf-Herat Railroad Come on Stream by March 2021
Eslami says Khaf-Herat railroad will come on stream by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2021).
The minister said on Friday that a section of the railroad will be constructed by Iran while the remaining part will be built by Afghanistan.
“The construction operation of the part related to Iran is near completion,” he was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
“The railroad is 66 kilometers from the border to Khaf city and the significance of this huge project is that the railroad of Afghanistan will be linked with Iran’s national railroad network as well as with those of other countries.”
International North-South and East-West corridors pass through Iran. Transiting the Afghan territory and investing in Afghanistan are essential for Iranian traders and also those of Afghanistan.”
The Khaf-Herat project started in the fiscal 2007-08. It connects Iran’s eastern city of Khaf with Afghanistan’s western city of Ghoryan.
Chabahar Sets Record in Handling India-Afghanistan Transit
The Shahid Beheshti Port of Chabahar in Iran, operated by India, has set a new record by handling a record 76 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of cargo.
The port has completed 18 months of smooth operations. During this period, it not only handled container and bulk cargo vessels, but also livestock and heavy lift cargo vessels, Asian News International reported.
"The transit of export consignment from Afghanistan through Chabahar, which commenced in February 2019, has now shown a healthy upward trend. On June 30, the IPGL [India Ports Global Ltd] terminal loaded 76 TEUs [all refrigerated] for India. This is a record single loading and a milestone in the growth path of Shahid Beheshti Port of Chabahar," Arun Kumar Gupta, managing director of India Ports Global Ltd, was quoted as saying.
"On June 28, the port also handled the fourth consignment [300 TEUs] of wheat, an aid cargo from India to Afghanistan. This is part of 75,000 tons of humanitarian aid from the government of India to the people of Afghanistan."
Indian Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya said India is working to bring efficiency in port operations at Chabahar, adding that this project is not only serving India and Iran, but will be a "game-changer" for landlocked Commonwealth of Independent States countries and Afghanistan.
Due to the integration of Chabahar Port with the Free Trade Zone approved by Guardians Council, a bigger boost in cargo transit through the port is expected in the future, the release said.
Subsequently, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran and Free Trade Zone authorities on June 9 for the implementation of laws and regulations of the zone in Chabahar Port.
India Ports Global is a fully owned by Sagarmala Development Company Ltd, a company controlled by India’s Shipping Ministry.
“The trade is also upbeat about the announcement that Ghazanfar Bank of Afghanistan will soon open a branch in Chabahar,” Gupta said. “It is understood that the bank has received the requisite permit from the Central Bank of Iran.”
India Ports Global Ltd. started operations from two berths at Shahid Beheshti Port on Dec. 25, 2018, and has since handled container, bulk cargo, livestock and heavy lift cargo vessels.
The port has a waterfront of over 1,200 tons (with 70 hectares of backup area), where four post panama vessels can berth.
India, Iran and Afghanistan inked a pact in May 2016, which entailed the establishment of transit and transport corridor among the three countries using Chabahar Port as one of the regional hubs for sea transportation, besides the multimodal transport of goods and passengers across the three countries.
The first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan.
The inauguration of the first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port (out of a total of five development phases), has tripled Chabahar's capacity to 8.5 million tons (equal to that of all the northern ports of the country). It allows the docking of super-large container ships (between 100,000 DWT and 120,000 DWT) and increase India’s connectivity with Afghanistan.
Chabahar is of strategic importance for Iran as it is the country’s only oceanic port, which bypasses the narrow chokepoint of Strait of Hormuz connected to the Persian Gulf. It is only 70 kilometers west from Gwadar Port, the starting point of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The China Overseas Port Holding Company operates Gwadar Port.
