A highway connecting Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province with the central province of Bamyan has received US$220 million in financing from the Asian Development Bank as part of efforts to open up trade routes throughout the country.
The financing for construction of the 178 kilometre road from Dar-i-Suf to Yakawlang comes under the bank’s North-South Corridor Project, which aims to support the reconstruction of 418 kilometres of national and regional highways in the northern and central provinces of the country.
Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, president of Afghanistan, described infrastructure development during the inauguration of the project as “among the government’s key priorities for economic growth and development of Afghanistan”.
“This project will not only open the arteries of the central areas but it will turn central areas into Afghanistan’s heart,” Ghani said.
In April 2017, the government of Afghanistan and the Asian Development Bank released their Transport Sector Master Plan Update to build new roads, railways, civil aviation, trade routes and urban transportation over the next 20 years.
Two segments of the road connecting Mazar-e-Sharif with Dar-i-Suf, and Yakawlang with Bamyan, have already been completed through ADB’s financial support.
Afghanistan’s wider strategy, which is outlined in its National Peace and Development Framework and the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation strategy for 2020, is to develop priority transport routes and increase trade through transport connectivity.
Mahmood Baligh, minister of public works, commented that the road would turn Bamyan province into the country’s transit hub after completion within “three and a half years” into 2020.
Afghanistan became a founding member of the ADB in 1966. A current total of US$1 billion in loans and US$4.7 billion in approved grants have been extended the to country by the bank. Of this amount, around US$2.2 billion has financed roads, railway, and airport projects in Afghanistan.