Page 46 - IRANRptDec19

links fanning out from Iran’s only oceanic port, Chabahar—being jointly developed by New Delhi and Tehran in a project that enjoys a US sanctions waiver..
The Azerbaijani rail chief said that within the INSTC framework 8.3 km of railroad tracks running from Astara station in Azerbaijan to Iran’s border were laid. A new railway bridge was also constructed. Construction of a 35-hectare railway station with terminals for cargo unloading were ongoing in Astara, Iran, he added.
In May, Iran was made a permanent member of the​ ​Commonwealth of Independent States​ ​(CIS) Transport Committee, to facilitate trade with the post-Soviet club.
The previous INSTC meeting was in Tehran in March, when representatives of 13 countries—Iran, India, Russia, Turkey, Tajikistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Oman, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Syria—gathered.
Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation (PMO) has announced a plan to sell off minor, unprofitable ports to private companies, ILNA reported on September 11.
The Iranian government has invested heavily in several major Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf ports in recent years, but due to a lack of capital smaller ports missed out on the investment bonanza.
According to a memo released by the PMO on September 10, the ports would be sold off to private companies over the next few months following an assessment of their potential value.
Mohammad-Ali Hassanzadeh, the PMO deputy for ports and economic affairs, was quoted as saying: “We have 48 small ports in the country, most of them located at southern sea coastlines. We have finished the comprehensive plan studying their status for transfer to the private sector for investment activity and development.”
Significant investment has been ploughed into ports that are nodes in international transport corridor networks under development, for instance the Russian-led International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and routes favoured by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI envisages using Iran as a hub for connections to other countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. The plan to offload many of the more modest and lossmaking ports comes as increased investment has been announced for a significant upgrade of ​Bandar Anzali port​ on the Caspian Sea.
Khatam al-Anbia Construction Headquarters, controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has won a contract to build a new roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) ferry terminal at the port.
It is estimated that an overall new port area, which will be covered by the Anzali Free Trade Zone (AFTZ), will cost more than IRR1tn (around $87mn at the free market rate), officials said. But, as with other projects implemented by Khatam al-Anbia, the financial details will not be released.
9.1.5 ​TMT sector news
Iran’s recent disconnection of the internet in the midst of the social unrest provoked by a sudden big petrol price hike cost local telecom operators around $90mn, Iranian Minister of Information and Communication Technologies Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi told local media on December 2.
The near-total internet blackout lasted for around a week from November 16 as protests and riots broke out across the country, leading—according to an
46​ IRAN Country Report​ December 2019 www.intellinews.com