TEHRAN- Over 66 million tons of goods have been loaded and unloaded at ports of Iran since the beginning of current Iranian calendar year (March 21), IRIB reported quoting the head of Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) as saying.

Mohammad Rastad also said that loading and unloading of commodities at the ports of Iran has risen four percent during the mentioned time span compared to the same period of time in the past year.

The official further put the amount of non-oil commodities transited via Iran at over 1.712 million tons during the mentioned time.

While Iran is combatting the U.S. unilateral sanctions on its economy, the country’s ports as the major gates of exports and imports play some significant role in this combat. This role makes all-out support to ports and more development of them serious and vital.

Such necessity has led the government to define projects for more development of the ports and also take some measures to encourage investment making at the ports, in addition to facilitate loading and unloading of goods, especially basic commodities, there.

On May 21, the deputy director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) said following a directive by President Hassan Rouhani, IRICA is providing new facilities for importers of basic goods which makes them able to clear their commodities in less than an hour.

“For basic goods such as meat, system formalities and clearance procedures will be carried out in less than an hour and importers can transport their goods soon after,” Mehrdad Jamal Orounaqi said.

Connecting the ports which are the major cargo hubs of the country to the national railway network is another project seriously followed up by the government.

The head of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI) has announced that 59 kilometers of railroads are planned to be built for connecting the major cargo hubs in the country to the national railway network by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 19, 2020).

Saeed Rasouli mentioned linking the cargo hubs to the railway network as one of the main priorities of RAI in the current year.

All such measures indicate the strong will for strengthening the role of ports specially during this time of sanctions.

MA/MA