MEA Clarifies India Not Dropped From Chabahar-Zahedan Rail Project; Says Waiting To Finalise Pending Issues

The railway line project was a part of India’s commitment to the trilateral agreement with Afghanistan and Iran to construct an alternate trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

(File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: India-Iran ties have recently become a hot news as there were reports doing rounds with claims that Iran has decided to continue with the construction of a railway line from Chabahar port to Zahedan without any support from India citing delay in funding as the reason. However, Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Thursday cleared the air over the controversy citing the reports speculative and asserting that the Iranian side was to nominate an authorised entity to finalise the technical and financial issues related to the venture which was still awaited. "We have seen some speculative reports about Chabahar Port and the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project. Indian government had appointed IRCON  to assess the feasibility of the project. It was working with CDTIC, an Iranian company under their Ministry of Railways in that regard," Srivastava said, as quoted by news agency PTI. He went on to say that the agency completed the site inspection and review of the feasibility report, and a Detailed discussions were thereafter held on other relevant aspects of the project, which had to take into account the financial challenges that Iran was facing. "In December 2019, these issues were reviewed in detail at the 19th India-Iran Joint Commission Meeting in Tehran," Srivastava said, adding that "the Iranian side was to nominate an authorised entity to finalise outstanding technical and financial issues. This is still awaited." The railway line project was a part of India’s commitment to the trilateral agreement with Afghanistan and Iran to construct an alternate trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia. It was during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Tehran in 2016 where the agreement was inked with the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani. Under the agreement, Indian Railways Construction Ltd (IRCON) had promised assistance to the railway line project besides financing worth $1.6 billion. The project didn’t take off as the United States imposed sanctions on Iran. (With inputs from news agency PTI)