New Delhi: Iran will hand over the strategic Chabahar port to an Indian company within a month for operation as per an interim pact, Iranian minister of roads and urban development Abbas Akhoundi said here on Thursday.Akhoundi is in India to participate in the Mobility Summit organised by the NITI Aaayog. “Now, we are ready just to handover the port (Chabahar) to the Indian company just to operate this in interim agreement that already we had with Indian part for one and a half year,” Akhoundi told PTI.The Chabahar port is easily accessible from India’s western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan’s Gwadar port located at distance of around 80 kms from Chabahar.After a meeting with his Indian counterpart, minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari , Akhoundi said: “We have already moved one step forward…We should introduce a banking channel to India, which we already did it and fortunately has been formally accepted by the Indian side”.He said India has also introduced a banking channel, which has been approved by Central Bank of Iran.“The Indian side had investment in Chabahar port and we are moving towards utilisation of the port,” Akhoundi said, adding that the handing over should be done “during one month. We have done everything”.The first phase of the port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan that bypasses Pakistan.Chabahar is being considered a gateway for trade by India, Iran and Afghanistan with central Asian countries, besides ramping up trade among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi.“The routes of the region should be connected on land, sea and air,” Hassan Rouhani had said at the inauguration ceremony.Under the agreement signed between India and Iran earlier, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar port phase-I with capital investment of $85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of $22.95 million on a 10-year lease.On US sanctions impacting bilateral oil trade, the visiting minister said Iran hoped to find a way out to continue selling crude oil to India.“Of course, it will impact the trade between the two countries,” Akhoundi said, adding the sanctions would not halt oil sales to India.“At the end of the day, both sides will find out some way out to carry on their relationship as we hear from the Indian [side] that they are already committed to buy the crude oil and we are also committed to continue our trade relationship with India and buy rice and other food material and also industrial material from the Indian side”.Iran is India’s third biggest supplier of crude oil but US sanctions will from block payment gateways from November 3.“There has been some impact… I will just not say something that is not realistic … Certainly the US has made trade between the two sides uneasy but I would like to emphasise that this is not something that the US can halt and stop this relationship between two sides,” Akhoundi added.He said Iran welcomes Indian firms developing the giant Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf nation. “The Indian side is very keen to invest there. We are still to receive the project proposal,” he said.On his meeting with Gadkari, the Iranian minister said: “We reviewed the formal statement which was released by Prime Minister Modi during President Rouhani’s visit to India. That statement is very very strong which shows that we have a very deep relationship”.He said that what was emphasised in the meeting was that India is very committed to all the agreements it has signed.