Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 5
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: India just talks about developing Iran's Chabahar port, said Siavash Rezvani, director of ports of maritime department of Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province.
"For the time being, we are not so much hoping for the presence of Indian companies in Chabahar port development project, because they just talk about that," ISNA quoted Rezvani as saying on Oct. 5.
"India has long been interested in the development of Chabahar and has announced its readiness, but no final decision has been made yet to make investment in the project."
Although a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the two countries four months ago, but no investment has been made so far, he added.
Companies from Singapore and China have also announced readiness to invest in Chabahar, he noted.
India and Iran signed an agreement in May for the development of the strategically important Chabahar port that will give India sea-land access route to Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan.
India intends to lease two berths at Chabahar for 10 years. The port will be developed through a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which will invest $85.21 million to convert the berths into a container terminal and a multi-purpose cargo terminal.
Edited by CN
