The Ministry of Roads and Urbanizations sees the future of the north-south corridor in the hands of Chabahar harbor. The Ministry Advisor, Gholamreza Salaami said: “Negotiations with foreign parties for the development of the harbor must be sped up. If the Chabahar rail route is completed, Iran will gain the ability to transit all of the cargo from Southeast Asia via this port.”
So far, in order to develop phase one of the Chabahar Port, two contracts have been signed; A Build-Lease-Transfer (BLT) contract with a domestic company and a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract with Indian partners, valued at 85 million US-Dollars.
Iran seeks to quickly develop Chabahar in order to compete with the Chinese 50 billion USD investment in Gwadar harbor in Pakistan. Salaami has stated the high level of security as the main advantage of Chabahar compared to Gwadar.
The financing of Chabahar railway is faced with a 2.5 billion USD deficit. “Domestic sources are unable to finance such a number and we must search for foreign investors. Currently the Chabahar-Mashhad railway faces the greatest deficit and the railway only becomes financially feasible once it connects Chabahar to Mashhad and Sarakhs, on the north-east border of Iran, thereby creating a suitable transit route. This project is not solely in the interest of the Ministry of Roads and Urbanization and many other organizations must come to understand that this project will solve the employment, immigration and prosperity issues in the region”, explained Salaami, “China, Japan and India are interested in investing in Chabahar and in the next step developing the Chabahar rail network. Inviting Japan to invest in Chabahar alongside India is a good option and shows the definite return of investment in Chabahar.”
