Iran denies excluding India from Chabahar rail project

at 5:24 pm

New Delhi (NVI): In contrast to recent reports which claimed that India had been ousted by Iran from Chabahar-Zahedan railway projects, Iran’s Railway Minister has said that “vested interests” were behind these reports and both the countries are cooperating on the projects.

In this regard, India’s ambassador to Iran, Gaddam Dharmendra was yesterday invited by Saeed Rasouli, Deputy Minister Roads & Head of Iran Railways to review ongoing co-operation on Chabahar-Zahedan railway. Saeed clarified Iran’s position on the projects and rejected the recent reports on the same.

“Amb Gaddam Dharmendra was today invited by HE Saeed Rasouli Dy Minister Roads & Head of Iran Railways to review ongoing co-op on Chabahar-Zahedan railway. HE Rasouli stated that vested interests were behind recent reports that Iran excluded India from Chabahar-Zahedan railway,” the Indian Embassy in Iran said in a tweet.

This comes days after India dismissed as speculative the reports which claimed that it had been ousted by Iran from the projects of Chabahar Port and the Chabahar-Zahidan railway line in the Persian country.

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava told a media briefing on July 16 that India and Iran have a longstanding commitment since 2003 regarding the Chabahar Port which was finally operationalised in 2016 during the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Iran.

Srivastava had said that an Indian company has been operating the Port since 2018 and has steadily scaled up the traffic at the Port.

Since December 2018, 82 vessels have been handled there, including 52 in the last 12 months alone, he said, adding the port handled 12 lakh tonnes of bulk cargo and 8200 containers.

“Proactive measures are currently underway to increase the usage of Chabahar Port, both for Afghanistan and Central Asia,” the MEA spokesman said.

-ARK

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