Chabahar Port

Start with the map. Then answer the one question the exam asks. Why this port, and not another?

1. Where exactly is Chabahar?

Chabahar lies in Sistan-Baluchestan province, on Iran’s south-eastern coast. It sits on the northern shore of the Gulf of Oman. From there it opens straight onto the Arabian Sea.

The port is outside the Strait of Hormuz. Ships do not have to pass that narrow chokepoint to reach it. ORF adds that ships face no long waiting queues there, unlike at Bandar Abbas. Chabahar also sits in a free economic zone, which simplifies customs and tax.

There are two terminals. Shahid Kalantari is the older one, with a draft of 7 to 8 metres. Shahid Beheshti is the deep one, with a draft of 16.5 metres. India works on Shahid Beheshti. Its first phase gives a capacity of about 8 million tonnes, and ORF reports a plan to reach 18 million tonnes.

2. Why does India need a route that avoids Pakistan?

Afghanistan has no coast. The shortest road from India to Afghanistan runs through Pakistan. Pakistan does not let Indian goods cross its land. RFE/RL stated this plainly in 2017.

Chabahar solves the problem with a sea-and-land route. Goods go by sea from an Indian port such as Kandla to Chabahar. From there they go by road into Afghanistan. The whole route runs through Iran and never touches Pakistan. The same route can also lead on to Central Asia.

This is the core fact for the exam. The port is about access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. It is not about African trade or Arab oil states.

3. How far is Gwadar, and why do people compare the two ports?

Gwadar is Pakistan’s port in Balochistan. A Chinese company runs it, and it is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Chabahar lies just west of it, across the border.

Sources disagree on the gap. Outlook India says about 72 km. The Quint says about 80 km. The Hitavada puts Chabahar about 120 km from Pakistan’s Balochistan province, where Gwadar lies. The pages do not say why the figures differ. Learn the two ports as close neighbours, not as one exact figure.

Pakistan’s own line in March 2018 was that the two are sister ports. Indian writers still see Chabahar as a counter to Gwadar.

The project is older than most students think. It began in 2003, stalled, and then moved fast between 2015 and 2018.

4. Which deals built the Chabahar project?

The idea goes back to 2003. In that year Prime Minister Vajpayee and Iran’s President Khatami agreed a roadmap for cooperation. Chabahar was part of it.

Sanctions on Iran then slowed the work. India and Iran signed an MoU on Chabahar on 6 May 2015, during Nitin Gadkari’s visit to Tehran. The big step came on 23 May 2016. India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a trilateral agreement in Tehran on 23 May 2016. Modi, Iran’s President Rouhani and Afghan President Ghani were at the meeting. India and Iran also signed an MoU for a $500 million line of credit.

5. What did the 2016 trilateral agreement set up?

The pact created a transit and transport corridor between India, Iran and Afghanistan. Chabahar was to be one of its sea hubs. Goods and passengers could move by several modes. That is what multi-modal means.

Al Jazeera described the deal as a way to turn Chabahar into a transit hub that bypasses Pakistan. It also said Kabul would get an alternative route to the Indian Ocean once the project is built.

Follow-up work came in 2018. The first Coordination Council meeting took place on 23 and 24 October 2018. On 24 December 2018 a follow-up committee met at Chabahar. The three sides agreed the routes for the trade and transit corridors. They also agreed to allow cargo to move under TIR Convention provisions.

6. When did India start running the port?

The Chabahar port was inaugurated in December 2017. India sent Minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan to represent it.

In 2018, India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) began operating the terminal. IPGL is a government-owned company. It works through a subsidiary, India Ports Global Chabahar Free Zone (IPGCFZ). IPGL is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Sagarmala Development Corporation, now renamed Sagarmala Finance Corporation.

The Quint reported that India formally took over operations on 24 December 2018.

7. What did India actually build and send?

India also built a road. Engineers of India’s Border Roads Organisation built the Delaram-Zaranj road in Afghanistan. It links the Afghan highway system to the Iranian border at Zaranj. Reports differ on its size. A 2005 report, written during construction, gave 280 km and $80 million of Indian funding. Outlook India later gave 218 km and $100 million. Treat both as reported figures.

India’s wheat followed. The first consignment of almost 15,000 tonnes left Kandla on 29 October 2017. It reached Chabahar on 1 November and Zaranj on 11 November. India’s ambassador said it was part of a 1.1 million tonne gift to Afghanistan. He said 700,000 tonnes had already been sent.

Container traffic then grew. ORF counts 60,059 TEUs in 2023-24, against 9,126 in 2022-23. Since 2018 the port has handled over 450 vessels and 8.7 million tonnes of bulk and general cargo.

A big contract met US sanctions, then a war.

8. What did India and Iran sign in May 2024?

On 13 May 2024, IPGL signed a ten-year contract with Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation (PMO). Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal witnessed the signing in Iran.

IPGL would equip and operate the Shahid Beheshti terminal. India committed about $120 million for equipment. It also offered a rupee credit window worth $250 million for port projects.

Akashvani said the deal opens a trade route between South Asia and Central Asia. The route bypasses both Karachi and Gwadar in Pakistan.

9. How did US sanctions hit the project?

The US exempted the Chabahar project from its Iran sanctions in 2018. The exemption covered the port, a linked railway and non-sanctionable goods for Afghanistan. ORF cites former Indian officials. They say the US document was only a letter. Banks and vendors never accepted it as proof. India could not buy ship-to-shore cranes and used mobile harbour cranes instead.

On 16 September 2025 the US State Department revoked the 2018 exemption. It took effect on 29 September 2025. The US called this part of its maximum-pressure policy on Iran.

India then asked for time. The US granted a six-month conditional waiver, effective 29 October 2025. A US Treasury letter said Chabahar activities would not face US sanctions until 26 April 2026. The MEA announced the waiver on 30 October 2025.

10. What happened after the waiver ended?

The waiver ended on 26 April 2026. On 27 April the MEA spokesperson said the issue was under discussion with both Iran and the US. He added that the regional conflict was a complicating factor.

Days earlier, Business Standard had reported a proposal. India would hand IPGL’s stake in IPGCFZ to an Iranian entity. Control would return to India once sanctions ease. This was a report from one unnamed official, not a confirmed decision.

On 9 July 2026 the US struck Chabahar city. Outlook India and Marine Insight reported hits on piers, a traffic-control tower and military sites. They said civilian port facilities were not targeted. The strike came after President Trump declared the US-Iran ceasefire over. These reports do not say that the Indian-run terminal was damaged.

11. Where does India's role stand today?

On 31 July 2026 the government told the Lok Sabha that India had met its full $120 million commitment. The last tranche went to the PMO in August 2025. It said it remained engaged with all stakeholders.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri spoke after Modi met Iran’s President Pezeshkian at the SCO summit in Bishkek. The report appeared on 1 September 2026. He said India was seeking a sustainable way forward with stakeholders. He linked the problem to the West Asia conflict and to changed rules on what the port may do.

On 30 September 2026 Construction World reported that operations had reportedly been handed back to the Iranian side until conditions normalise. It said India’s role stays affected by the expired waiver. TRT World, citing an ET Infra report, said earlier that government-nominated IPGL directors had resigned. Treat these as press reports, not official statements.

A port is only a gate. The roads and rails beyond it decide whether the gate is useful.

12. What are the road and rail links beyond the port?

By road, cargo from Chabahar crosses Iran to Zaranj on the Afghan border. It then joins the Delaram road and the Garland Highway. That highway reaches Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif.

By rail, the link is the Chabahar-Zahedan railway. Construction World, citing Iranian officials, gives 630 km direct, or 735 km with branch lines. It has 33 stations, 39 tunnels and 201 bridges. Iranian officials say it is designed to carry about 7.7 million tonnes of freight and 2.2 million passengers a year.

On 30 September 2026 Construction World reported that Iran had finished laying rail on the Chabahar-Iranshahr section. Officials target late January 2027 for opening. The line ends at Zahedan, inside Iran. It does not itself run into Afghanistan.

13. Is Chabahar part of the INSTC?

The International North-South Transport Corridor began with an agreement among India, Iran and Russia on 12 September 2000. It is a 7,200 km multi-modal route from Mumbai towards St Petersburg. Thirteen countries have ratified the agreement.

Business Standard calls Chabahar a critical gateway for the proposed corridor. ORF is more careful. It says the port has not yet been formally integrated into the INSTC. It says supplies on the corridor mainly go through Bandar Abbas. It also notes that Russia’s rail plans leave Chabahar out.

So the safe line is this. India wants Chabahar linked to the INSTC. The link is a goal, not a finished fact.

14. What do Afghanistan and Central Asia gain?

Afghanistan’s old sea route runs through Pakistan. In November 2025 all border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan stayed closed. The Taliban signalled they wanted to shift trade to Iran’s Chabahar and Bandar Abbas ports.

Afghan Commerce Minister Nooruddin Azizi visited Iran and then India in November 2025. In Delhi he said the sides had discussed opening the Chabahar route and land and air corridors. His ministry also asked the US to extend the sanctions waiver.

Central Asia is part of the plan too. The first India-Central Asia working group on Chabahar met on 12 and 13 April 2023. ORF says Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan see the port as a gateway to the Indian Ocean.

The exam asks for the reason behind the port. Know that one reason cold, then learn why each wrong option fails.

15. What did UPSC ask in 2017?

UPSC asked about Chabahar in the Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2017. It was question 84 of General Studies Paper I in the Series A booklet. The question asked about the importance of India developing the port.

The four options named African trade and closer ties with oil-producing Arab states. Another named independence from Pakistan for access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. The last named a Pakistan-guarded gas pipeline from Iraq. The facts in this lesson support one of them. That is access to Afghanistan and Central Asia without depending on Pakistan. The official key confirms option (c). The official paper lists the options in a different order, with the same answer.

16. Why are the other options wrong?

Take each decoy and test it against the official aim. The Ministry of External Affairs calls the port a regional and international hub for humanitarian and commercial goods. Akashvani says the 2024 deal opens a route between South Asia and Central Asia. Neither source names Africa or the Arab oil states as the aim.

The gas-pipeline option fails for a different reason. It needs Pakistan to protect a pipeline for India. India uses Chabahar because Pakistan does not give it transit. So the option contradicts the facts.

The other options are wrong because they are not what Chabahar is for.

17. What is a one-glance table of Chabahar?

Add one live hook for each row before the exam.