TEHRAN – Afghanistan has sent 39 containers with a total capacity of 76 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) to India through Iran’s southeastern Chabahar port, IRIB reported, quoting Behrouz Aghaei, the director general of Sistan-Baluchestan Ports and Maritime Department.

According to Aghaei, 30 refrigerated containers and nine conventional ones (a total of 76 TEUs) were shipped from Chabahar port on Tuesday heading for the Indian ports of Mandra and Nhava Sheva.

In 2016, Iran, India, and Afghanistan decided to jointly establish a trade route for land-locked Central Asian countries.

India sent its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through Iran’s Chabahar Port back in 2017.

Later on, Afghanistan officially started exporting goods to India through Chabahar port in a ceremony held in early February 2019.

The event was attended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, along with Iranian Ambassador to Kabul Mohammadreza Bahrami and Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Vinay Kumar.

In November 2019, Afghanistan Ambassador to Tehran Abdul Ghafoor Liwal said his country was planning to increase commodity transit through Iranian Chabahar Port.

“Chabahar is an economic and a transit bridge for Afghanistan and we are going to expand our economic relations through increasing exports and imports through Chabahar,” he said.

Earlier this week, Head of Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce Hossein Salimi announced that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has approved Afghanistan’s Ghazanfar Bank to open a branch in southeastern Chabahar Port for facilitating trade activities in the port.

As Iran's only oceanic port, Chabahar consists of two separate ports named Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti, each of which has five berths.

Iran has awarded the development project of this port to India, and the South Asian country committed $500 million to build two new berths in this port.

India has doubled the allocated funding for the development of the port in its national budget bill for 2020.

EF/MA