Chabahar

Chabahar(meaning four springs or springs well, formerly Bahar Beheshti) is a city and capital of Chahbahar Country, Sistan & Baluchistan Province, Iran. Chabahar is Iran’s southernmost city. This port situated on the Makran coast of the Sistan & Baluchistan province of Iran and is officially designated as a Free Trade and Industrial Zone by Iran’s government.

Due to its free trade zone status, the city has significantly in significance the international trade. The overwhelming majority of the city’s inhabitants are ethnic Balouch who speak the Baluchi language. The country of Chabahar has hot, humid weather in the summer and warm weather in the winter, giving it a hot desert climate. The western winds in the winter bring about scattered rainfalls in the region.

There are fishing villages and former ports named Tis in Chabahar’s district, which dates from 2500 BC, known in Alexander’s conquests as Tis, eventually renamed Tis.

Tis was formerly an active commercial port and was destroyed by the Mongols. There are will some ruins in the village. Modern Chabahar dates back to around 1970. When it was declared a municipality and large port projects were started. After the 1979 revolution the foreign companies left the projects and Iranian public companies linked to the Ministry of Jahad-e Sazandegi (or jihad for construction) took them over.

The Iraq-Iran war caused Chabahar to gain in logistical and strategic importance. In the 1980s the government developed a new scheme named the Eastern Axis Development Scheme. Which aimed to use Chabahar’s geographical position as a regional development tool to stimulate economic growth in the eastern provinces.

The establishment of the Chabahar Free Trade- Industrial Zone in 1992 resulting from the EAD Scheme brought development and encouraged immigration from other parts of the country to Chabahar.