Chabahar Port

Chabahar Port is a seaport on Iran's Makran coast, in Sistan and Baluchistan province, right next to the Arabian Sea. It is the only Iranian port that has direct, easy access to the open ocean, unlike Iran's other major ports which sit inside the narrower Persian Gulf. For India, Chabahar is important because it offers a sea and land route to Afghanistan and Central Asia that completely avoids Pakistani territory, something India cannot do through any other port.

Why does it matter to India?

India has no land access to Afghanistan or the Central Asian countries because Pakistan sits directly between them and does not allow India to use its land routes for trade with these countries. Chabahar solves this problem: Indian ships can carry goods to Chabahar by sea, and from there the goods can travel by road or, now increasingly, by rail deeper into Afghanistan and Central Asia. This makes Chabahar a rare "workaround" port for India's regional trade and strategic reach.

Where did it come from?

India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a trilateral agreement on developing Chabahar Port and related transport links in May 2016, during an official visit to Iran. Under this agreement, India took over operations of one terminal at the port, called Shahid Beheshti Terminal, through India Ports Global Limited, a company set up by India specifically to run overseas port projects.

India has invested in port equipment, cranes and infrastructure at this terminal since operations began in 2018. The port project has faced repeated difficulties because of international sanctions on Iran, especially those imposed by the United States, which have made it hard for many international companies, banks and shipping lines to deal with Iranian ports, even though the US has in the past given Chabahar itself a special exemption because of its importance for humanitarian trade to Afghanistan.

How does it work?

Cargo ships from India's western coast, mainly from ports like Kandla and Mundra in Gujarat, sail to Chabahar. From there, goods are moved onward by road through Iran to Afghanistan's border towns, or further into Central Asian countries, using Iran's internal transport network. The newly completed Chabahar-Zahedan railway now adds a direct rail link from the port to Zahedan, a city close to the Afghanistan border, which is expected to make this onward movement faster, cheaper and more reliable than trucks alone, especially for bulk cargo like wheat and other goods India has sent to Afghanistan as aid.

India's position and Indian examples

India has used Chabahar to send humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, including wheat shipments, medicines and pesticides, especially during periods when Pakistan's land routes were closed to Indian goods bound for Afghanistan. India has held a long-term operating contract for the Shahid Beheshti Terminal, renewed for extended periods to give it stability to invest further. In 2026, there were unconfirmed reports that a change in the port's operating arrangement, with an Iranian company potentially taking on a larger operating role, was being discussed; this has not been confirmed as final and should be treated as [Unverified] until an official announcement is made.

Commonly confused concepts

• Chabahar Port vs Gwadar Port: Chabahar is India's project in Iran; Gwadar is a nearby port in Pakistan developed mainly with Chinese investment as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The two ports are only about 170 kilometres apart by sea but serve rival strategic and trade interests.
• Chabahar Port vs Bandar Abbas: Bandar Abbas is Iran's largest and busiest port, located inside the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz. Chabahar, on the open Arabian Sea coast, is not affected by any blockage or tension at the Strait of Hormuz, which makes it strategically more reliable for India in a Gulf crisis.
• Trilateral Agreement (2016) vs Long-Term Operations Contract: The 2016 agreement set the broad framework among India, Iran and Afghanistan; the operations contract is the specific deal under which India Ports Global actually runs the Shahid Beheshti Terminal on a day-to-day basis.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

The biggest challenge for Chabahar has been US sanctions on Iran, which discourage global shipping companies, insurers and banks from dealing with Iranian ports, even when a specific project like Chabahar has an exemption. This has slowed down investment and made planning difficult for India. Critics also point out that India's slow pace of investment at the port, compared to what was originally planned, has limited how much cargo actually moves through it.

The way forward, as India has stated, is to keep the port operational through periods of sanctions pressure, invest steadily in infrastructure, and use new links like the Chabahar-Zahedan railway to make the route more attractive for Central Asian trade once it is fully operational.

Concepts to Know

• Terminal: A specific section of a port, with its own docks, cranes and storage yards, that is set up to handle a particular kind of cargo or is run by a particular operator.
• Trilateral agreement: A formal agreement signed between three countries, here India, Iran and Afghanistan, setting out how they will work together on a specific project.
• Sanctions: Restrictions, usually imposed by one country or a group of countries, that limit trade, financial dealings or other cooperation with a targeted country, in this case Iran, often over political or security disputes.
• Humanitarian exemption: A special permission given even under a general sanctions regime, allowing certain activities like sending food, medicine or humanitarian aid, because blocking those specific activities could harm ordinary people.