The terminal
constructed by India in the Iranian port of Chabahar faces fund constraints
since the Union budget presented to Lok sabha has allotted a sum of Rs One
hundred Crores while the Indian company running the terminal has floated
tenders worth Rs Eight hundred crores for buying and erecting handling equipment
at the Port
The modest
budget for Chabahar port is seen by those tracking the project as an indication
that these much-delayed equipment tenders are unlikely to be finalised soon, further delaying the start of full-fledged
operations at the port that was given to India on a government-to-government
(GoG) basis.
India Ports Global, the state-owned entity
formed to develop and run the Chabahar port, issued a tender on 26 September
last year, the third since 2017, to buy four new post Panamax size ship-to-shore
or so-called rail mounted quay cranes (RMQCs) of 65-ton capacity each
The timeline for submitting offers on these
tenders have been repeatedly extended by India Ports Global as bidders are
unwilling to place quotations in the face of sanctions imposed by the west on
the Persian Gulf nation over its nuclear programme.
The equipment is part of the agreement signed
with Iran to develop Chabahar port. The Indian company has installed six mobile
harbor cranes that can load or unload 18 containers per hour
The project is
considered a strategic venture for the development of regional maritime transit
traffic into Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Chabahar is also being built as a gateway to
the East and West of the Caspian Sea as part of the International North-South
Transport Corridor (INSTC). The Corridor is a 7,200-km-long multi-modal network
of sea, rail, and road routes for moving freight between India, Iran,
Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia, and Europe. The project has been
bogged down by delays due to the US sanctions on Iran. |