Indian port of Mundra resumes processing Iranian ships: SAOI

The Shipping Association of Iran (SAOI) says Iranian ships are no longer banned from India’s port of Mundra some three weeks after an Indian port operator said it will no longer process containers from Iran at the port.

In a letter addressed to Iran’s main business forum on Sunday, SAOI Secretary General Masoud Palme said that restrictions on Iranian ships had been lifted at Mundra, which is India’s largest private port, according to a report by the ISNA news agency.

India’s Adani Ports said on October 11 that its terminals in the country would no longer process import and export containers from Iran as well as from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It came after reports said that Indian authorities had seized a large shipment of narcotics originating from Afghanistan.

However, Palme said in his letter to the Iranian Chamber of Commerce that the issue had been resolved with Adani, adding that Iranian-flagged ships or ships carrying cargoes loaded from Iranian ports would be able to dock at Mundra, located in India’s western state of Gujarat.

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He said that Iranian businesses in India and the country’s embassy in the New Delhi had contributed to negotiations with Adani Ports that led to the removal of the ban in Mundra.

Iran has expanded its sea trade with India in recent years with efforts mostly focused on development of the southeastern Iranian port of Chabahar through which India seeks easier access to Afghanistan and landlocked countries in Central Asia.

A report by the semi-official Tasnim news agency said India’s ambassador to Tehran Gaddam Dharmendra had travelled to Bandar Shahid Rajayi, Iran’s largest container port, on Sunday.

The report said that the diplomat’s visit to the port on the Persian Gulf coast was in line with plans to sign a sister ports agreement between Shahid Rajayi and India’s port of Mumbai.

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