Mon, 23 May 2016

11:41

Delegation level talks between PM Modi and Iranian Prez Rouhani are expected to get underway in short while. India will invest billions of dollars in setting up industries -- ranging from aluminum smelter to urea plants -- in Iran's Chabahar free trade zone after it signed a pact to operate a strategic port on the Persian Gulf nation's southern coast.

The inking of commercial contract to build and run the strategic port of Chabahar will help India gain a foothold in Iran and win access to Afghanistan, Russia and Europe, thus circumventing Pakistan, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said in Teheran.

"The distance between Kandla and the Chabahar port is less than the distance between New Delhi and Mumbai, and so what this agreement does is to enable us quick movement of goods first to Iran and then onwards to Afghanistan and Russia through a new rail and road link," he explained. "Over Rs 1 lakh crore investment can happen in Chabahar free trade zone," he said.

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