India waits for Iran to resolve ‘outstanding’ technical, financial issues of Chabahar rail project: MEA

NEW DELHI: After reports that Iran had "dropped" India from the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project, the government on Thursday said the project was actually awaiting the appointment of an authority by Iran to resolve outstanding technical and financial issues.
MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said since 2016, despite the difficulties posed by the sanctions situation, there has been significant progress on the Chabahar Port project.
On the proposed railway line though, he said, IRCON was appointed by India to assess the feasibility of the project. It was working with CDTIC, an Iranian company under their ministry of railways in that regard, he said.
IRCON has completed the site inspection and review of the feasibility report, said the official.
"Detailed discussions were thereafter held on other relevant aspects of the project, which had to take into account the financial challenges that Iran was facing. In December 2019, these issues were reviewed in detail at the 19th India-Iran Joint Commission Meeting in Tehran," Srivastava said.
"The Iranian side was to nominate an authorised entity to finalise outstanding technical and financial issues. This is still awaited," he said
His remarks come after media reports claimed that India has been left out of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project in Iran. The official described the reports as speculative.
On reports regarding the Farzad-B Gas field negotiations in which ONGC was involved in the discovery stage, Srivastava said follow-up bilateral cooperation was, however, impacted by policy changes on the Iranian side.
"In January 2020, we were informed that in the immediate future, Iran would develop the field on its own and would like to involve India appropriately at a later stage. This matter remains under discussion," he said.