Aziz Baloch
Chabahar is the Iran’s southernmost city, and also its best access to the Indian ocean. It is also at one end of what
former president Mahmud Ahmadinejad called “Iran’s Eastern Corridor” connecting Chabahar to central Asia, the
Caspian and the Caucasus. In much the same way as Russia felt compelled to hurry Iran along at Rasht, India is
taking a hand in the expansion of the Chabahar port and is also lending finance and advice to the construction of the
railway. The aim is to sidestep Pakistan and compete with the new Chinese-built port a few miles along the coast at
Gwadar in Pakistan.
Tehran has suggested that the Indians lend a hand with the 500km stretch between Chabahar and the line between
Ban and Zahedan, which is located by the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. This would tie Chabahar in with
the main Iranian rail system and give Indian exporters access to the distant markets beyond Azerbaijan and
Turkmenistan. The possibility of building a railway to Herat in western Afghanistan has been proposed and
abandoned at regular intervals for the past hundred years or so, mostly by officials of the British and Russian empires.
The Iranian plan now is to build a branch to Herat from the line being built between Chabahar and Torbat-e Heydarieh.
The work for this scheme is under way, and the line now stands about halfway to the border.
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, the president of Afghanistan, has reportedly expressed his support for a plan to continue the
line on the Afghan side of the border, and the local officials have lobbied in favour of it.
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