Connectivity - PUBLIC GRIEVANCE CELL, Ministry of Defence (Government of India)

Concurrent with Chabahar Port Development Contract, an Agreement on establishment of an International Transport and Transit Corridor amongst the Governments of the Republic of India, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Islamic Republic of Iran was signed on 23rd May, 2016.

India being a major regional player, stronger connectivity and better logistics are in the forefront India's neighborhood outreach policy. The objective is to support landlocked Afghanistan by giving access to the open seas thru Chabahar Port. The Agreement will provide a reliable transport corridor for smooth transport and transit of the goods thru Chabahar Port.

This agreement was signed to ease the passage of goods between these countries to boost trade. As part of the agreement, India signed a bilateral agreement with Iran for developing Iran's Shahid Beheshti Port - Chabahar. This agreement also includes construction of 500 km long railway line between Chabahar and Zahedan Agreement came into force on 25th July 2018. Agreement will optimize the logistic cost by bringing in efficiency.

The first meeting of Coordination Council was held on 23rd October 2018 in Tehran. Subsequently two Follow Up Committee meetings have been held, last one being on 20th December 2019 at New Delhi.

Chabahar is connected to Zaranj in Afghanistan via Zahedan city. India has already constructed 215 kms long Zaranj-Delaram highway which is connected to the four major cities of Afghanistan via a ring road.

When linked to the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), the Chabahar-Zahedan-Zaranj corridor would connect South Asia on one hand and Europe on the other.

International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) :
This is a multimodal transport corridor, established on 12th September 2000 at St. Petersburg by India, Russia and Iran. Later INSTC was expanded to 10 new member countries and Bulgaria was accorded with an observer status. This 7200 km long corridor would reduce the transit time between India and Russia from 40 - 60 days to 25 - 30 days and provides cheaper options for routing the cargo via INSTC.
This port will be integrated with International North South Transport Corridor & Ashgabat Agreement and would provide good opportunities for India and other South Asian countries to improve trade with CIS & European countries.
Chabahar Free Trade Zone :

To unleash the geographical location advantage, Government of Iran has envisaged to develop 07 Free Trade Zones (FTZ) across the country. These free zones are strategically located across Iran and offers varied investment opportunity across sector.

Most of the FTZs are set up with a set of explicit objectives of attracting FDI, promoting manufacturing exports, create jobs, improving technological upgradation and developing under developed regions. These seven free zones are currently at different development stages and are playing pivotal role in driving Iranian economy. The seven operational free zones have exported around 300 Million USD worth of goods in year 2017 and have witnessed a robust year on year growth of 34%.

Shahid Beheshti Port of Chabahar is backed by Free Trade Zone. The Integration of Port with FTZ has been achieved in April 2020.

The total area of Chabahar free zone is around 14,000 hectares and for industrial development around 10,000 hectare area is delineated. Out of this 10,000 hectare around 7,000 hectare is for heavy industries and 3,000 hectare for light industries.

Chabahar Free Trade Zone can play very important role in import and export trade of Iran. In addition, it can play a special role for transit of goods to Afghanistan and Central Asian republics particularly Eastern CIS countries. Being located at the entrance of the Sea of Oman and having access to the Indian Ocean, Chabahar Free Trade Zone enjoys unique pioneering status compared to other Iranian free zones.