India plans to develop Iran's Chabahar Port in about 18 months and use it for import commodities like urea.
"We are setting up a port in Chabahar, Iran... We will complete the port in about one-and-a-half years," Road Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said here today.
The port will be used to ship crude oil and urea, saving the country in transportation cost.
"...If we produce urea there then we can get urea at 50 per cent lesser cost and would not need to provide subsidy on it," he said.
The port of Chabahar in southeast Iran is central to India's efforts to open up a route to landlocked Afghanistan circumventing Pakistan.
An agreement for development of the port is likely to be signed shortly and 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 USD 85.21 million year to convert the berths into a container terminal and a multi-purpose cargo terminal.
By Business Standard
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