Chabahar: A route through Iran

In May 2024, India Ports Global Limited signed a long-term contract with Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization to equip and operate the Shahid Beheshti terminal at Chabahar. The agreement provided a ten-year framework for a project intended to connect India with Afghanistan and Central Asia through Iran. [3] [4]

It was a decision to sustain an overseas transport route, with commercial operations already under way. It did not give India ownership of Chabahar as a whole, or remove the dependence on Iranian infrastructure and the international conditions under which the terminal could function. [2] [5]

Agreements before the long lease

The project’s history preceded Modi’s government. A July 2016 parliamentary reply placed India–Iran connectivity cooperation within the Tehran Declaration of 2001 and New Delhi Declaration of 2003. The Modi government advanced that engagement through the commercial contract signed on 23 May 2016 and the accompanying India–Iran–Afghanistan transport and transit agreement. [1]

The route offered a way to reach Afghanistan without moving goods through Pakistan. But agreements and working cargo facilities were separate stages. India’s takeover of part of Shahid Beheshti began on 24 December 2018, with the physical handover completed by 29 December. The first commercial cargo operation followed on 30 December, when a bulk carrier arrived with Brazilian corn. [1] [2]

The 2024 contract gave the next phase a longer horizon. In a July parliamentary reply, the shipping ministry said ₹400 crore had been allocated between 2016–17 and 2023–24, with ₹201.51 crore utilised by that checkpoint. An allocation authorised funding; the utilisation figure recorded how much had been used at the time. [4]

Investment and operating risk

A later reply supplied a further financial milestone. In February 2026, the external affairs ministry told Parliament that India had fulfilled its $120 million contribution for port equipment under the 2024 contract. The final tranche had been transferred on 26 August 2025. That completed contribution should not be confused with completion of every proposed road, rail or trade link associated with Chabahar. [5]

Sanctions meanwhile altered the operating environment. The same reply recorded the United States’ withdrawal of its earlier exception in September 2025 and a subsequent conditional waiver lasting only until 26 April 2026. After that deadline, India said the issue remained under discussion with Iran and the United States. [5] [6]

By late August, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was still describing talks with stakeholders to find a sustainable way forward, amid conflict and changing restrictions in West Asia. The equipment contribution was recorded as paid; maintaining the route remained a diplomatic and operational task extending beyond the signature on its ten-year contract. [7]