India has said it is working on Chabahar port as a “new port” and had resisted US pressure to keep the port going.
In a media interaction in Tehran recently, Indian envoy to Iran Gaddam Dharmendra said that in just one year, Chabahar has seen traffic of 6000 TEU and over a million tons of “bulk cargo”, that is rice, wheat, sugar, etc for both Iran and Afghanistan.
But the port is still in its development phase, he said. “We’re working on Chabahar, we’re buying equipment for Chabahar, we’re preparing for Chabahar,” he said.
“Currently, Indian partners are using Iranian facilities in the port but we have placed orders for the necessary equipment from China, Italy, Finland, and Germany and hope that the first delivery will be in October.” he said.
However, government sources said India was trying to replace the Chinese and German companies as suppliers with others. The Chinese firm ZPMC and German company Liebherr are two of the suppliers, but Indian government officials said they have decided not to go ahead with them because they have been seen to be adding to the delays in the port improvement projects.
The Chinese firm is actually one of the world’s only two suppliers of specialised cranes. In the current atmosphere of tensions with China, having a Chinese supplier in Chabahar may not also be welcome.
But the port is still in its development phase, he said. “We’re working on Chabahar, we’re buying equipment for Chabahar, we’re preparing for Chabahar,” he said.
“Currently, Indian partners are using Iranian facilities in the port but we have placed orders for the necessary equipment from China, Italy, Finland, and Germany and hope that the first delivery will be in October.” he said.
However, government sources said India was trying to replace the Chinese and German companies as suppliers with others. The Chinese firm ZPMC and German company Liebherr are two of the suppliers, but Indian government officials said they have decided not to go ahead with them because they have been seen to be adding to the delays in the port improvement projects.
The Chinese firm is actually one of the world’s only two suppliers of specialised cranes. In the current atmosphere of tensions with China, having a Chinese supplier in Chabahar may not also be welcome.
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