TEHRAN: Iran and India has launched a shipping lane that connects India to the Iranian Southern Port.

The Head of Ports and Maritime Organization in Iran’s Southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan said the sea lane starts from the Indian port city of Mumbai and stretches to Mundra Port, Kandla, Iran’s port city of Chabahar, and the port city of Bandar Abbas. He said the first cargo ship using the new sea lane docked at Chabahar’s Port of Shahid Beheshti on 27th January.

Under a contract with Iran, India has taken over the operations of part of the strategic Chabahar Port in Southeast Iran. The takeover of operations was done during the Chabahar Trilateral Agreement meeting between Indian, Iranian and Afghan officials in December 2018.

In 2016, India entered into the trilateral treaty with Iran and Afghanistan to develop a new transportation corridor connecting the three countries and other Central Asian Countries, bypassing Pakistan.

Chabahar provides India with an easier land-sea route to Afghanistan. In November 2018, India sent its first cargo of wheat to Afghanistan through Chabahar in what appeared to be a run dry of a Multi-Modal connectivity route.