TEHRAN (FNA)- Indian Road, Transportation and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari is due to visit Iran to ink a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the development of the Southeastern port city of Chabahar.

The announcement was made by the outgoing Indian Ambassador to Tehran, DP Serio Stava, in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday.

He also underlined the Indian companies' increased partnership in economic plans in Iran, including petrochemical production.

Indian media had earlier reported that New Delhi is set to ink an MoU on the development and operation of Chabahar port in Iran.

Merely 72 km West of China-developed Gwadar port in Pakistan�s restive province of Baluchistan, Chabahar, on the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, provides India a land-sea access route into Afghanistan and Central Asia through the Bandar Abbas-Caspian Sea axis.

The MoU is expected to be signed in Tehran by Gadkari very soon.

India�s development of Chabahar port has been hanging fire since 2003.

By Fars News Agency