IRAN kicked out india from chabahar

IRAN kicked out India from chabahar

NEW DELHI: Iran and China have finalized a $400 billion strategic partnership deal, and a big political casualty is that the Chabahar to Zahedan rail project with India, which Iran has called off citing delayed finances, The Hindu reported on Tuesday.

It said Iranian Transport and concrete Development Minister Mohammad Eslami last week inaugurated the track-laying process for the 628km Chabahar-Zahedan line, which can be extended to Zaranj across the border in Afghanistan.

The development comes as China finalizes a huge 25-year, $400bn strategic partnership affect Iran, which, the paper said, could cloud India’s plans.

Officials told The Hindu that the whole project would be completed by March 2022, which Iranian Railways would proceed without India’s assistance four years after they signed the agreement.

Tehran, Beijing finalize $400bn partnership deal

Iran would instead use approximately $400 million from the Iranian National Development Fund. it had been not clear if the unnamed officials were Indian, Iranian, or another.

The Hindu cited “leaked versions” of the 18-page “Comprehensive Plan for Cooperation between Iran and China”, being finalized by officials in Tehran and Beijing. The cooperation will extend from investments in infrastructure, manufacturing and upgrading energy and transport facilities, to refurbishing ports, refineries, and other installations, and can commit Iranian oil and gas supplies to China during that period.

The newspaper quoted Iranian officials as denying a report that also suggested Chabahar port would be leased to China. However, consistent with The Hindu, Iran proposed a tie-up between the Chinese-run port at Gwadar and Chabahar last year and has offered interests to China within the Bandar-e-Jack port 350km faraway from Chabahar, also as within the Chabahar duty-free port.

The railway project, which was being discussed between the Iranian Railways and therefore the state-owned Indian Railways Construction Ltd (IRCON), was meant to be a part of India’s commitment to the trilateral agreement between India, Iran, and Afghanistan to create an alternate trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

In May 2016, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tehran to sign the Chabahar agreement with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, IRCON had signed an MoU with the Iranian rail ministry.

The MoU was to construct the Chabahar-Zahedan railway as “part of transit and transportation corridor in a trilateral agreement between India, Iran, and Afghanistan”. IRCON had promised to supply all services and financing for the project (around $1.6bn).

However, despite several site visits by IRCON engineers, and preparations by Iranian Railways, India never began the work, ostensibly thanks to worries that these could attract US sanctions. The US had provided a sanctions waiver for the Chabahar port and therefore the line to Zahedan, but it's been difficult to seek out equipment suppliers and partners thanks to worries they might be targeted by the US, said officials. India has already “zeroed out” its oil imports from Iran thanks to the sanctions.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs and IRCON declined to discuss the difficulty, The Hindu said.