Baluchistan News

Afghanistan's first refrigerated cargo was exported to India through Shahid Beheshti Port of Chabahar.Sistan and Baluchistan Ports and Maritime Director General Behrouz Aghaei stated that Afghanistan's first refrigerated cargo containing refrigerated grapes was exported to Indian port of Jawaharlal Nehru Port through Shahid Beheshti Port of Chabahar.He added: "Chabahar Port’s main Refrigerated Container Site with the capacity of 150 Containers for unloading and Loading Refrigerated Goods is under construction. In the current conditions, Shahid Beheshti Port of Chabahar is equipped with a temporary refrigerator for storage of refrigerated cargo containers with a capacity of 160 Containers."Aghaei emphasized that In the near future…

Iran's Chabahar port expects 20% increase in cargo handling operations in the current year.The Director General of the ports and maritime of Sistan and Baluchistan, Behrouz Aghaei,  announced the economic, marine, technical, and maintenance priorities of the ports of the province in 2019-2020.Mentioning the economic, marine, technical, and maintenance priorities of the ports of Sistan and Baluchistan province, Behrouz Aghaei stated that dredging of the canal of Shahid Kalantari port and providing full radio coverage in the coastal waters of the Sistan and Baluchestan are the priorities of the General Directorate of Ports and Marine Affairs of this province.He continued: "In the port and economic section, the conclusion of a contract with 5000 billion Rials worth of investment in the Chabah

The Indian Minister for Shipping Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is keen on developing Chabahar Port in Iran and is hopeful of starting operations by 2018. Gadkari was in Teheran, to represent India at the taking over of office by President Hassan Rouhani for the second term. On the eve of his visit to Iran the Minister said that India and Iran have shared special ties historically. Gadkari informed that civil construction work has already started at the Chabahar Port. The Indian Government has allocated Rs 6 billion for the development of the port. Out of this, tenders worth Rs 380 Crore for equipment have already been finalized. He said he was hopeful that the Iran Government would accord certain necessary approvals for expediting the work.

The conditions at the shipbreaking yards in Pakistan are extremely dire, says the annual report by NGO Shipbreaking Platform. As in India and Bangladesh, the yards in Gadani operate directly on the beach without any impermeable and drained working areas protecti ng the sea and sand from pollution. As there is no infrastructure to deal with hazardous wastes in Gadani, dangerous and polluti ng substances such as asbestos, PCBs and residue oils are simply dumped behind the shipbreaking area. Workers’ health and safety are blatantly ignored in Gadani, and trade unions, such as the Industriall-affiliated Pakistan National Trade Union Federati on (NTUF), have voiced strong concerns related to systematic breaches of basic labour rights.

Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker with eight Sri Lankan crew on board, Somali authorities said on Tuesday, the first time a commercial ship has been seized in the region since 2012. Security forces have been sent to free the Aris 13, a regional police official said late on Tuesday. "We are determined to rescue the ship and its crew. Our forces have set off to Alula. It is our duty to rescue ships hijacked by pirates and we shall rescue it," Abdirahman Mohamud Hassan, director general of Puntland’s marine police forces, told Reuters by phone. Puntland is a semi-autonomous northern region of Somalia. Alula is a port town there where pirates have taken the tanker. Experts said the ship was an easy target and ship owners were becoming lax after a long period of calm.

The newly expanded Gwadar deep-water port in Pakistan that is key to a planned $46 billion Chinese economic corridor is nearly complete and expects to process about a million tons of cargo next year, the operator said on Tuesday. Most of the cargo will be incoming construction materials to be used in projects related to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which envisions linking far-western Chinese production regions by road through Pakistan for shipment through Gwadar port to overseas markets. Gwadar is in Baluchistan province where separatist groups in have waged a violent campaign for decades, saying the Pakistani state has failed to develop the impoverished region and instead plundered its natural resources.

Two Pakistani coast guards were killed on Saturday when a bomb exploded under their vehicle, police officials said, in a town in the southwest which has been hit hard by years of separatist violence. The blast, which also injured three coast guards, completely destroyed the vehicle during a patrol on the outskirts of Jewani town in Baluchistan province, the police officials said. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion. Jewani lies in Gwadar district, whose port is at one end of the proposed $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor stretching from the Arabian sea to China's Xinjiang region. Separatist groups in Baluchistan…

The wreck of the TASMAN SPIRIT has been successfully removed. The aft section was re-floated on Saturday, March 6, and was yesterday delivered to buyers at Gadani Beach in the province of Baluchistan, Pakistan. This follows the earlier removal of the forward section of the tanker that had run aground in the channel into Karachi Port on July 27 last year. The wreck removal contractors SMIT Salvage B.V., were operating under a wreck removal contract agreed with The American Club, the vessel’s liability insurers. Speaking in London, Brian Davies, Claims Director of The American Club said, ‘We are very pleased with the outcome. SMIT have completed a difficult operation under difficult circumstances well within the required time frame.