After the cancellation of international sanctions from Tehran, India plans to invest in the infrastructure of Iran to gain access to rich resources of the Central Asian states and to open a new way for the supply of its products to Europe.
“We’re seeing the latest manifestation of the Great Game in Central Asia, and India is the new player,” a South Asia expert at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Michael Kugelman, said. “India has had its eyes on Central Asia for a long time.”
Two Indian state-run companies, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port Trust has reached an agreement to upgrade the Iranian port of Chabahar. The cost of the modernization of the two berths is estimated at $ 85 billion.
According to data compiled by BP Plc, the Central Asian states hold at least 11% of the world’s proven natural gas reserves, as well as substantial deposits of oil and coal.
There are plans for the construction of 900-kilometer railway from Chabahar to Afghanistan, where a group led by Steel Authority of India Ltd. holds rights to an $11 billion iron ore mine.
