Page 45 - IRANRptFeb21

mobile harbour cranes for development of Iran’s Chabahar port
Turkey, Iran and Pakistan to ‘revive a rail line with eye on Chinese Belt and Road potential’
A first shipment of mobile harbour cranes has been delivered by India to Iran for the development of the sole Iranian oceanic port, Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman, India’s World is One News (WION) TV news channel has reported.
Two 140-tonne mobile harbour cranes, supplied via Italian company Italgru, arrived at the Chabahar port on the night of January 16, it added.
India and Iran are jointly developing the port, looking to capitalise on unlocked trade flow connectivity between Afghanistan, Central Asia and Iran and India, with sea routes across the Indian Ocean linking to new rail and road routes into and out of Chabahar. The development project has been shielded from US sanctions levied against Tehran given Washington’s desire to encourage war-torn Afghanistan’s economic development.
December saw the first India-Uzbekistan-Iran trilateral working group meeting on the joint use of the port for trade and transit purposes and enhanced regional connectivity. New Delhi is set to invite Afghanistan for the next such working group meeting.
Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to New Delhi, Yerlan Alimbayev, was cited by WION as highlighting the importance of the port to his country, saying: "Kazakhstan will not only join, we are actually [already] in a process." India is specifically involved in the development of phase-I of the Shahid Beheshti port facility in Chabahar. In December 2018, an Indian company, India Ports Global Limited (IPGL), took over the port operations.
India used the port to send 75,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan in 2020 as humanitarian aid amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Turkey, Iran and Pakistan intend to revive a railway route connecting Istanbul to Islamabad via Tehran, Nikkei Asia has reported.
The three countries launched a container service on the line 12 years ago but it did not get beyond test runs. However, they are now reportedly willing to launch the 6,524-kilometre Istanbul-Tehran-Islamabad (ITI) railroad—including passenger services—with the aim of enhancing connectivity with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for trade and investment infrastructure. The route would connect with services from Pakistan to China’s Xinjiang autonomous region.
A journey along the entire length of the ITI would take 10 days compared to the usual 21 days needed to travel by sea between Turkey and Pakistan.
If Iran cannot come to an arrangement with the incoming Joe Biden administration for the lifting of the Donald Trump-era heavy sanctions against Tehran, it could look to rapidly build up trade and investment with China. Iran and China in the past year have continued to draft details of a proposed $400bn strategic deal under which the Chinese would invest in the resource-rich Islamic Republic—in sectors including oil, gas, petrochemicals, manufacturing and transport—and would be repaid with discounted oil. Part of the agreement could see Chinese products made in Iranian factories with low labour costs for shipping to European markets.
Some analysts predict that if Iran can come to an agreement with Biden, it will stop short of signing such a huge deal with the Chinese in favour of opening up trade and investment potential with an array of countries.
9.1.5​ Tourism sector news
Hotel closure rate in Iran has hit 30% amid pandemic
Some 30% of hotels in Iran have shut down since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the country in February, the Federation of Hotel Owners has said.
45​ IRAN Country Report February 2021 www.intellinews.com