In a historic move, India formally establishes shipping lines to Iran Chabahar Port
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NEW DELHI - India has formally established shipping lines to Chabahar. The first such ship arrived on Sunday. This was announced in a release from the Iranian Prime Minister's office.
It has been decided that regular ships from 3 Indian ports --Mumbai, Kandla and Mundra will now regularly go to the Iranian port every 2 weeks.
The director general of Sistan-Baluchestan Ports and Maritime Organisation Behrouz Aqayee said in the release, "With the arrival of the first 3700TEU container at Shahid Beheshti Chabahar port, for the first time, the shipping line between the ports of Mumbai-Mundra-Kandla have opened".
The development comes a month after India took over operations at the port. The Commercial operations at the port began on December 30 with the arrival of a Cyprus registered bulk carrier with 72458 MT of corn cargo. The vessel MV Macheras berthed at the terminal on December 30, 2018. This is the first time India will be operating a port outside its territories.
The port is crucial for India's connectivity to Afghanistan and to Central Asia and North-South Transport Corridor that connects Mumbai to Moscow.
The port is very important for landlocked Afghanistan which is keen to get connectivity with international markets. It already has an air corridor with India, opened in 2017.
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