Chabahar: Senior port state control officer of the Chabahar Port of Iran, Sa Hashemi, on Saturday said the port’s operator, an Indian company, is going to invest USD 85 million by bringing equipment to carry out loading and discharging at the port.

“Our operator, which is an Indian company, is going to invest USD 85 million here by bringing some equipment to carry out loading and discharging,” Hashemi said.

He added, “The Indian company here is the operator of this port. It means that it has the loading and discharging responsibility of all the ships that come, all the ocean-going ships.”

He said the Chabahar Port's depth is -16 and all the 1,20,000 dead-way ships can load, discharge and convert here without any problem.

Hashemi added that there is no limitation to any kind of vessel. “We have the passenger terminal for marine passengers that come here, any passenger ship. Any ferry ship can come here. We can also have converted, very big 6000 containerships as well. We have no limitation for berthing and onboarding of these ships,” he said.

ANI on Saturday visited Iran's Chabahar port and met the Indians working at the port to get a sense of how the country was conducting day-to-day activities at Shaheed Beheshti port in the Chabahar Free Zone.

Indian Ports Global Limited (IPLG) cranes were seen at the port for loading and unloading of cargo from ships.

There is a huge office of IGPL at the port in Chabahar, which is run by the Indian authority.

Shippin containers were seen at the port while a cargo vessel named DELRUBA, bound for China, was loading iron dust.

Meanwhile, Indian Ambassador to Iran, Rudra Gaurav Shresth, paid a visit to the Chabahar Port on Friday, marking his first visit to the port since assuming charge as envoy.

The visit came on the heels of him presenting his credentials to the Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, in the first week of July.

“Chabahar is an important project for India and the same was reflected in how the Indian ambassador chose Chabahar for his first official visit outside Tehran,” a source told ANI.

On his first visit to the Chabahar Port, the ambassador interacted with several senior port officials.

The port’s general director, Engineer Asgari, Governor of Chabahar, Dr Sepahi and managing director, India Ports Global Limited, Sunil Mukundan and senior officials of the port also interacted with the envoy.

Ambassador Rudra Gaurav Shresth is a career diplomat and a member of the Indian Foreign Service. He assumed charge as the Indian Ambassador to Iran in May 2023.