Iran picks desert coast outside Strait as location for mega-port project
Iran has picked up a location just outside the Persian Gulf for its plans to build a mega-port in southern waters as the country aims to significantly increase seaborne trade to help diversify the economy and boost jobs in its mining and manufacturing sectors.
Head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) Mohammad Rastad said on Saturday that the planned port will be constructed in Kuh Mobarak in the Jask county of the southern Hormozgan province.
Kuh Mobarak is 65 kilometers to the west of Jask, a current port facility that overlooks the Strait of Hormuz on the mouth of the Sea of Oman and where Iran is building new crude export terminals to bypass the normal oil export routes through the Strait.
Iran is already building out its single ocean port in Chabahar, located to the east of the Sea of Oman near the Indian Ocean.
However, authorities had earlier indicated that Iran would build another large port on Mocran coast along the Sea of Oman.
Rastad said that the planned port in Kuh Mobarak will be Iran’s largest commercial harbor with a throughput of 100-200 million metric tons of cargo per year.
He said the port is expected to be ready by 2032 after seven years of construction and will mostly handle containers.
The official said waters off Kuh Mobarak are among the deepest in southern Iran, allowing the future port to process very large container ships.
The PMO aims to reach 630 million tons of cargo handling capacity at Iranian ports by 2045 as the country seeks to diversify the economy away from crude by bolstering trade of metals, agrifood and manufactured products.
Current major ports in southern Iranian waters include Imam Khopmeini, located to the westernmost of the Persian Gulf and dedicated mostly to dry bulk ships and grain cargoes, and Bandar Abbas, a large container port on the mouth of the Strait.
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