As the Sistan-Baluchestan Ports and Maritime Department’s Director-General Behrouz Aghaei told Mehr news in a telephone conversation on Monday, the Iranian Minister Mohammad Eslami is to embark for Chabahar in southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province to inaugurate several projects in Chabahar's Shahid Beheshti port.
The Iranian minister will arrive in Chabahar on Wednesday heading a delegation comprised of his deputies, some Parliament members, senior officials from the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran (PMO), and some other Iranian top officials.
Eslami will launch several development projects in Shahid Beheshti port including a container terminal and a terminal for refrigerated containers, a multi-purpose warehouse, a strategic equipment building, power and water supply projects, a firefighting network project, and private sector investments projects and etc.
As Aghaei said, the inaugurated projects seek several major targets.
"Having the projects operational, Shahid Beheshti port's traffic will be increased dramatically," he said, "That means the total amount of net tons, containers, or twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU's) of products imported into or exported out of the port would increase."
"The projects will also increase the maritime transport in Chabahar and Shahid Beheshti port," Aghaei added.
"The projects launched, Iran can enjoy a remarkable growth in transit of its goods to regional countries, accordingly," the official noted.
He expressed content that the inaugurated projects will also set a proper bed for further absorption of Iran's private sector investments.
Aghaei reiterated that by increasing its trade transactions with regional countries via Shahid Beheshti port, Iran can improve the competitiveness of its export products with foreign rivals, as well.
He also informed that in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2020), exports from Chabahar port increased 37 times while the transit of goods at the port witnessed a 180-folded growth.
Chabahar is located less than 100 nautical miles from the Chinese built port of Gwadar in Pakistan. Chabahar, as Iran's only ocean port, plays an important role in developing trade, exports, and imports and in fishing as well.
Chabahar port consists of two separate ports named Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti, each of which has five berths.
By: Haniyeh Sadat Jafariyeh
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