Chabahar Port’s capacity for transit an advantage for Turkmenistan

Speaking in a video conference with Iranian Ambassador to Turkmenistan Gholam Abbas Arbab Khales, Ahmad Ali Mouhebati said Sistan-Baluchestan Province, especially Chabahar, enjoys many capacities in trade, economic and commercial fields.

Chabahar is connected to the open waters and plays a major role in developing trade, he added.

Sistan-Baluchestan is considered an important opportunity for domestic and foreign investors, he said, adding that executive bodies will make all their efforts for starting economic activities.

Elaborating on investment opportunities in Sistan-Baluchestan Province and Chabahar, Mouhebati called for Turkmen economic activists’ investment and participation.

Arbab Khales, meantime, expressed his readiness for maintaining coordination for Turkmen officials’ visit to Chabahar.

He noted that investment delegations will visit the capacities of Chabahar Port.

In the meantime, the director of the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Office in Chabahar Free Zone Hamid-Reza Toosi said Chabahar with its important trade capacities and also Shahid Beheshti Port enjoying an 8.5 million-ton capacity of loading and unloading per year can play important role in promoting trade.

Chabahar, as Iran’s only ocean port, plays an important role in developing trade, exports, and imports and in fishing as well.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei's special attention and the efforts made by President Hassan Rouhani's government have accelerated developing Makran Coasts, especially Chabahar Port, in a way that five big ships carrying basic goods, including wheat, barley, soybean, and corn berthed in one week.

The geographical location and the current atmosphere in Iran for developing Chabahar Port have made the Iranian port play a major role in national and international arenas.

On Sunday, the deputy head of Sistan-Baluchestan Province’s Ports and Maritime Department announced that docking operations were carried out simultaneously for eight ships at Iran’s Chabahar Port, for the first time in the port’s history.

“Since last week, eight docking operations, with a total length of more than 200 meters, were carried out in one day in this port,” ILAN quoted Hossein Ebrahimi as saying.

According to Ebrahimi, the boom in Chabahar Port’s maritime traffic is an indication of a bright future for sustainable development in this oceanic port.

For the second consecutive week, all five berths of Shahid Beheshti Port have been occupied, the official said, adding “This shows that Chabahar Port is gaining a significant place among the ports of the country and the region.”

Chabahar Port is one of the modern ports in the country in terms of equipment, benefiting from 30 strategic loading and unloading devices, according to the official.

“This equipment has played a significant role in the growth of unloading and loading operations, exports, and imports in this port,” he said.

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.