Context: India has proposed the inclusion of Chabahar port in the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) route.

• It also wants to expand INSTC membership by including Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
• India is not at present part of the 628-km railway project, which Iran decided to develop on its own last year.
• The railway project has stalled for the past few years due to sanctions from the U.S. under the Trump administration. 

Key points

• India proposed that the land route via Kabul and Tashkent would form the INSTC’s “Eastern corridor.
• India has already provided the Shahid Beheshti port of Chabahar with two cranes, and promised a further six.
• The new Biden administration is pushing for restoring talks with Iran on the JCPOA nuclear agreement, and may remove some sanctions on Iran.

Chabahar Port

• It is the only Iranian port with direct access to the Indian Ocean.
• The port of Chabahar is located on the Makran coast of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, next to the Gulf of Oman and at the mouth of Strait of Hormuz.
• It consists of two separate ports named ‘Shahid Kalantari’ and ‘Shahid Beheshti’.
• Being close to Afghanistan and the Central Asian countries of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan etc., it has been termed the “Golden Gate” to these land-locked countries.
• The Chabahar port was partially developed by India in the 1990s.
• In 2016, India and Iran signed a bilateral agreement in which India would develop one of the berths at Shahid Beheshti port, and reconstruct a container handling facility at the port.
• The agreement gives India the right to develop two berths of Chabahar, allowing them to be operated for 10 years by India Ports Global— a joint venture between Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port Trust, in partnership with Iran’s Aria Banader.

Significance of Chabahar Port for India

• India can bypass Pakistan in transporting goods to Afghanistan.
• It will provide India with a foothold at the mouth of the strategic Straits of Hormuz, through which a third of all the world’s sea-borne oil passes.
• Chabahar port, being 300 km away from Straits of Hormuz would be able to function, reducing Iran’s vulnerability to international pressure.
• Boost India’s access to Iran, the key gateway to the International North-South Transport Corridor that has sea, rail and road routes between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia, and Europe.
• Establishing an eastern corridor through Afghanistan would maximize its potential.
• In countering Chinese presence in the Arabian Sea as Pakistan handed Gwadar port to China on a 40-year lease. 
• Gwadar port is only 72 km away from Chabahar by sea.
• With Chabahar port being developed and operated by India, Iran also becomes a military ally to India.
• Expand India’s trade ties with the Central Asian countries, boosting import of iron ore, sugar and rice to India.
• Ensure in the establishment of a politically sustainable connectivity between India and Afghanistan.
• From a diplomatic perspective, Chabahar port could be used as a point from where humanitarian operations could be coordinated.

International North South Transport Corridor project

• The INSTC project was originally decided between India, Iran and Russia in 2000 in St Petersburg.
• Countries: It included 10 other central Asian and west Asian countries: Azerbaijan Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Oman, Syria and Bulgaria as an observer. 
• It is a Multi-mode network.
• It envisions a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail and road route for transporting freight, aimed at reducing the carriage cost between India and Russia by about 30% and bringing down the transit time from 40 days by more than half.
• This will also synchronize with the Ashgabat agreement, for creating an international transport and transit corridor facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.
• The transport and transit corridor is intended to ensure the unhindered flow of commerce throughout the region and to create a safe, secure and reliable route to trade initially with Afghanistan, and thereafter with Central Asia as a whole.