TEHRAN – Behrouz Aghaei, the director-general of Ports and Maritime Department of Sistan-Baluchestan Province in southeastern Iran, has said the country’s largest fully mechanized grain silo, with a loading and unloading capacity of 1,200 tons per hour, will be put into operation in the next Iranian calendar year (starts in March 2022).

The construction operations of the Shahid Beheshti port’s 100,000-ton silo in southeastern Chabahar port city were started in late October 2020 and the silo will be put into operation in the Iranian calendar year 1401, Aghaei told IRIB.

The silo has a dynamic capacity of 600,000 tons per year, he added.

According to the official, the silo will be equipped with an electronic unloading system and two transmission lines to transport goods from docks.

This silo has been constructed with the aim of increasing the port’s storage capacity for the ships carrying basic goods to the region, he stated.

“By increasing storage capacity as one of the economic factors of the country’s ports, this project will have a great impact on reducing the costs of transportation and storage of goods in southeastern Iran,” Aghaei added.

As Iran’s only oceanic port on the Gulf of Oman, Chabahar port holds great significance for the country both politically and economically. The country has taken serious measures for developing this port in order to improve the country’s maritime trade.

The port consists of Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti terminals, each of which has five berth facilities. The port is located in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province and is about 120 kilometers southwest of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, where the China-funded Gwadar port is situated.

Iran has already started working on a 600-kilometer-long railway line connecting Chabahar port to Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province close to the Afghan border.

EF/MA