India to send four more cranes to Iran for Chabahar port by June

India will send four cranes to Iran for Chabahar port by June. Out of these, two will be sent in March and remaining two later. 

Two cranes have already been sent in the month of January.

Sanjay Bandyopadhyay, Additional Secretary at India's Ministry of Shipping said, "Recently, we sent two mobile harbour cranes to the Chabahar port. In March, two more cranes will be sent. They are ready to be loaded to the ship near Venice. Two more will reach by June end.

"There are plans to procure more rail-mounted gantry cranes/rail-mounted cranes, for which bidding is going on, and this infrastructure is presently sufficient for the operation of the port. As it picks up for products, cargos going to Afghanistan and beyond, we will add more infrastructure."

India will host Maritime India Summit from March 2 to 4. The summit will be inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Ministers from Afghanistan, Armenia, Iran, Russia and Uzbekistan will participate. More than 1 lakh registrations have taken place for the summit. 

Bandyopadhyay said, "Chabahar has been a very ambitious project of the country. We have sent consignments of wheat and pesticides as required by Afghanistan."

At present, there are eight cranes at the port and four lifters. 

Chabahar is key to India's westwards connectivity -- providing connectivity to Afghanistan and beyond. 

Chabahar is also key to the International North-South Transport Corridor that connects Mumbai to Moscow and reduces the distance between the location by 40 per cent and cost by 30 per cent.