Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the government has decided to open two new crossings at Chowk Aap and Jalgi (Buleda) that border Iran.
He stated this in a tweet after a meeting with Minister for Defense Production Zubaida Jalal in Islamabad on Monday, PakTribune reported.
The interior minister said the border crossings will not only help boost trade between Pakistan and Iran but also promote tourism in the area.
The Pishin border terminal on the Iran-Pakistan frontier was officially inaugurated on April 21. It is located between Sistan-Baluchestan Province of Iran’s Sarbaz County on one side and the town of Mand in Pakistan’s Kech Makran Kech District, Balochistan Province, on the other.
Present at the inaugural ceremony were Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami, Pakistan’s Minister for Defense Production Zubaida Jalal, the head of Iran’s Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization, Daryoush Amani-Tehrani, Iranian parliamentarians and officials of industries and foreign affairs ministries, as well as of Pakistan’s Embassy in Tehran and a host of local officials.
Pishin is a third border crossing between Pakistan and Iran.
“After years of having only one border crossing with the neighboring Pakistan, namely Mirjaveh, last year we succeeded in inaugurating Rimdan checkpoint and today we are launching the third border crossing. From now on, Iran-Pakistan trade exchanges will be transformed and accelerated,” Iran’s roads minister was quoted as saying by IRNA at the inaugural ceremony.
According to Amani-Tehrani, Pishin will ultimately be constructed over 13 hectares, 2.5 hectares of which were inaugurated on April 21.
“Some 280 billion rials [$1.17 million] worth of investments have so far been made in the project, which has come on stream in 44 days since the beginning of construction,” he said.
Pishin border crossing is located 180 kilometers northeast of Chabahar Port.
SAARC Chamber President Iftikhar Ali Malik on Friday said the inauguration of third border crossing with Iran is poised to boost trade between the two Muslim neighboring countries, Pakistani newspaper The Nation reported.
SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, recognized as a regional apex trade body by South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is a constellation of the eight national Federation Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the member states of SAARC, namely India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Talking to a delegation of exporters from Balochistan led by former president of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Daroo Khan Achakzai, he said the launch of new Pishin-Mand checkpoint would not only increase trade volume manifold, but also generate ample job opportunities for the people of the region.
The rise in bilateral and barter trade through the new gateway would benefit the local people of Balochistan while legal trade would also be promoted, SAARC Chamber President added.
He said that it would bring about development and prosperity in the border districts of two countries.
Noting that Iran and Pakistan share a 959-km-long border, Achakzai stressed the urgent need to open more gateways to usher in an era of progress and prosperity.
Bilateral trade is currently around $359 million per annum.
Source: Financial Tribune
