Tehran: Iran has rejected claims of exclusion of India from the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project. In a report in an Indian newspaper, Iran has denied the claim of exclusion of India from this project. Farhad Montasir, a deputy of the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran, said in a conversation on Wednesday that ‘this news is absolutely wrong because Iran has not made any deal with India on the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project’.
According to an Iranian news agency, Montasir said, “Iran has just signed two agreements with India for investment in Chabahar. The first is about the machinery and equipment of the harbor and the second is India’s investment of 150 million dollars here.
Montasir said that the sanctions imposed by the US have nothing to do with Iran-India relations and cooperation in Chabahar. In 2018, the US agreed to give exemption in Chabahar port projects under the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act (IFCA) of 2012.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani called the port project ‘very important for building Iran’s economic future’. India’s public sector railway company, Ircon International, has promised to provide every service and funding for this project. According to the information, this company will invest about 1.6 billion dollars in the project.
