Iran has denied any reports that it has dropped India from the Chabahar project that connects Afghanistan, the Times Now reported.
On Monday (July 20), Iran made it very clear India is still very much part of the project and blamed “vested interests” behind this news.
To clear all doubts, Indian Ambassador to Iran, Gaddam Dharmendra, was invited to by the Saeed Rasouli, Deputy Minister Roads and Head of Iran Railways, to review the ongoing co-op on Chabahar-Zahedan railway construction which will connect to Afganistan.
Deputy MinisterRasouli stated that “vested interests were behind recent reports that Iran excluded India from Chabahar-Zahedan railway project.
The Indian Ambassador also met Speaker of Iran’s Majlis Baqer Qalibaf, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and held discussions to further boost ties between the two countries.
The occasion was to mark the 70th anniversary of bilateral ties between India and Iran.
It all started when reports started to emerge that the Hassan Rouhani government had decided to exclude India from the construction project of Zahedan.
This railway line is crucial as it would undermine Pakistan and China and allow India land access to Afganistan and Central Asia.
In 2016, India and Iran signed a signed agreement to construct a rail line from Chabahar port to Zahedan, along the border with Afghanistan. This would have allowed the land-locked nation access to a seaport to import and export products without depending on Pakistan.
This railway project was to be constructed the Indian Railways Construction Ltd (IRCON), under the commitment to the trilateral agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan to build an alternate trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
The agreement was signed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visited Tehran in 2016. The Chabahar agreement with Iranian President Rouhani and Afghanistan President Ghani, allowed IRCON to sign an MoU with the Iranian Rail Ministry.
India had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build the Chabahar-Zahedan railway as “part of transit and transportation corridor in a trilateral agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan”. The project cost was supposed to be over $1.5 billion and India had promised to provide all services and superstructure work.
However, due to the threat of section from the United States, India never began the work. Though India got a weaver for the Chabahar port and the rail line to Zahedan, India couldn’t find equipment suppliers and partners due to worries they could be targeted by the U.S.
When the news emerged that Iran was going to sign a 400 billion dollar deal with China and that Iran had dropped India from the Zahedan alarm bells started to ring.
The Modi government quickly denied this and the reason for the delay was due to Tehran yet to nominate an authorised entity to finalise the technical and financial issues related to the venture.
The distance between Chabahar port in Iran and Gwadar port in Balochistan which is built by China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is only 140km.
It must be noted that Iran is the second-largest supplier of crude oil to India, supplying more than 425,000 barrels of oil per day. India is also one of the largest foreign investors in Iran’s oil and gas industry.