TEHRAN- Indian government plans to set up a panel of secretaries on development of the Iranian southeastern port of Chabahar.

The panel will look into issues related to easing of financial terms and other contractual issues, in order to make the project more lucrative for private investors which New Delhi plans to attract for assisting in the mega scale development of the Persian Gulf nation’s major port, The Asian Age reported.

The formation of the panel comes at a time when there are concerns that the expected returns from the development project could be affected due to the United States hardening its stance on Iran over its purported non-compliance of terms of the nuclear treaty which was inked by Tehran in 2015 with world powers like the United States, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China as well as the European Union.

Apart from the bilateral pact to develop the Chabahar port, for which India will invest $500 million, a trilateral agreement on transport and transit corridor has also been signed by India, Afghanistan and Iran.

The government is hopeful that the strategic Chabahar Port in Iran will be operational by the end of 2018, Indian Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had said some time back.

MA