Financial Tribune- With new moderated prices for services offered at Chabahar’s Shahid Beheshti Port, this southeastern Iranian port has turned into the cheapest option for doing business in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, the deputy head of Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran said.

“Foreign ships belonging to international liners are entitled to a 90% discount on terminal handling charges for a three-month period, followed by a 70% discount for the second quarter and then a 30% discount will be extended for the next six months. PMO will grant a 30% discount to international ship liners in their second year of operation in Chabahar. On top of that, more discounts will be offered on ports’ duties,” Mohammad Ali Hassanzadeh was also quoted as saying by the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development's news outlet.

The first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port was inaugurated by Rouhani in December 2017, a little over a month after the first consignment of wheat was sent by India to Afghanistan via this facility.

Chabahar consists of two separate ports: Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti. The opening of the first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port (out of five phases defined for the project), which has tripled its capacity to 8.5 million tons (equal to that of all the northern ports of the country), will allow the docking of super-large container ships (between 100,000 DWT and 120,000 DWT).

Iran and India signed a lease agreement in February this year. The agreement means Iran is leasing a part of the area of the multipurpose and container terminal for 18 months to the Indian side that takes over operations of port facilities in the first phase of the port development project.

India has committed $85 million for the development of the Shahid Beheshti Port.