KABUL - NATO will provide the budget for the rehabilitation and upgrade of the Salang Highway, Afghan Public Works Minister Najibullah Aoudjan said Wednesday.
Salang Highway is one of the major routes connecting the north and east of the country with thousands of people travelling through on a daily basis. However, it has major risk of avalanches during the winter, sometimes causing civilians casualties and traffic accidents.
Aoudjan said NATO will invest $20 million on rebuilding the highway, installing security cameras, signaling systems and several other important standards which will ease travel on the highway.
After Pakistan blocked supply routes to Afghanistan last November, the NATO-led foreign forces began using routes through the north of Afghanistan via Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, to transport its massive supply trucks and heavy equipment.
"They have sent their technical teams to monitor the highway and plan to invest $20 million. I am not in agreement on some points with them; however they want to invest in the sanitation system of the Salang Tunnel, power system, installation of security cameras. It is in the bidding process now," Aoudjan said in Kabul.
The road connecting the Salang highway to the far north of the country will also be redeveloped, Aoudjan said.
The Asian Development Bank will fund the completion of a road through the Dushi-Pul-e-Khumri districts of north-eastern Baghlan province, said the Minister, adding that no further negligence in continuing the work would be accepted by him.
The construction of the 52-kilometer long Dushi-Pul-e-Khumri road started three years ago under an Afghan construction company, but work stopped before the road was finished, leaving it without asphalt.
The Nabizada Wardak and Bangladesh's Islamic Trading Consortium will complete the road estimated to cost around $17 million.
"I again warn the company to quit if they are not able to complete the project," Aoudjan said, adding that his ministry had lost enough time pursuing the project and had failed to monitor the work properly in the past. (Tolo News)