IRNA - Chabahar Port at the northern coast of the Sea of Oman is Iran's new international transit hub that aspires to turn into Iran's ace card in regional politics.
Authorities at southeastern Iranian Chabahar Port say they've discharged four general, wholesale cargo and oil vessels at the same time, boasting the port's high capacity to handle big operations.
'Now all ships, including general cargo and wholesale large and deep draught vessels, can now dock or berth at the same time in Chabahar Port because we are using strategic modern facilities,' said Behrouz Aghaei, the general manager of Ports and Maritime Organisation of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, adding that ship loader and unloaders at Shahid Behesti Port have a capacity of 600 tons per hour.
'The wholesale bulk-carrier MV Macheras, loaded with 72,459 tons of corn dispatched from Brazil is now being unloaded,' added the official. Macheras sails under Cyprus flag.
'The corn will be used for the internal consumption of eastern provinces, so its transit from this port can cut short the transport time and consequently the end user will not receive the final product at a high price,' said Aghaei.
Phase 1 of the Shahid Beheshti Port at Chabahar is being developed by India that officially took over the operations at this port at the turn of 2019.
The second vessel being unloaded is the Chinese-flagged ABA that shipped 20,000 tons of wheat from the south-western Imam Khomeini Port. 'This is the second transship cargo that has considerably reduced the time and costs,' added the official.
Container vessel NEGAR, dispatched from the southern Iranian Bandar Abbas Port in the Persian Gulf, has berthed at Shahid Beheshti Port and is being unloaded very rapidly, Aghaei said, but didn't mention what its cargo is.
Also, an 'oil tanker', loaded with more than 31,000 tons of gasoil and oil products dispatched from the Lavan Port in the Persian Gulf, is also docked and is being unloaded.