22 August 2003
Afghan President Karzai Observes Progress on Road Reconstruction
First paving between Kabul and Kandahar to be complete in 2004
Washington -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai paid a visit to Afghanistan's Wardak province near Kabul August 20 to observe progress on the reconstruction of the Kabul-Kandahar highway.
The $180 million road project, funded by the United States, Japan and Saudi Arabia, involves repaving approximately 1200 kilometers of Afghanistan's main highway connecting the capital Kabul with Kandahar in the south and Herat in the west by 2005. The completion of the highway is expected to greatly facilitate the movement of people, humanitarian aid, trade goods and agricultural products across the country.
According to an August 4 report by the BBC, the entire 450 kilometers of road between Kabul and Kandahar has now been graded, reducing the journey time between the two cities from two days to 10 hours.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) hired the American construction company, The Louis Berger Group, to take charge of the Kabul to Kandahar portion of the highway.
Jim Kunder, USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator, said August 20 that five Turkish, Indian and Afghan companies were also employed on the project, and were paving at a rate of five kilometers per day. He added that the first phase of paving on the Kabul-Kandahar road would be complete by the end of December 2003, and the second phase would finish in 2004, meeting the project's target date.
Karzai, accompanied by U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and charge David Sedney, expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the reconstruction and hoped that eventually all of the country's highways would be repaired.
"[T]ravelers who use this road are very happy with the progress of the work on this road, so I came here to share the happiness of my compatriots," said Karzai, as quoted in the Afghan daily newspaper "Anis."
Karzai officially launched the road reconstruction project at a November 10, 2002 groundbreaking ceremony.
The BBC reported on August 4 that work was interrupted earlier in 2003 after a number of Afghans attempting to clear landmines along the road were killed, presumably by Taliban or al-Qaeda supporters.
However, it added that those security concerns have been largely overcome, with about 800 Afghan policemen now patrolling the highway.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=August&x=20030822151057namfuaks0.5730554&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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