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KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN. For millions of displaced Afghans returning from Pakistan, the way home is from the south. But any joy of homecoming is soon tempered by the bumpy ride from Spin Boldak, near the border of Pakistan, to the southern capital of Kandahar.
Deeply rutted tracks and detours around broken bridges can reduce travel to a snail’s pace while passengers choke on dust and exhaust fumes.
“I traveled from Spin Boldak to Kandahar in midsummer and there was so much dust that visibility was down to zero, and we had to stop the vehicle,” says Umesh Pradhan, Finance and Administrative Officer for the United Nations World Food Programme in Kandahar.
All this is changing on one of the country’s busiest trade routes and its main highway for returning refugees and internally displaced persons, who had fled war and drought.
Work has started on repairing and upgrading a large portion of the 105-kilometer (km) road, which was built by the Americans some 30 years ago. The two-lane asphalted highway is due for completion by July 2004.
The $30 million project is partly supported by a $15 million grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, financed by the Government of Japan. The grant is administered by ADB.
“When the road is finished, it will cut down the travel time from 3 ½ hours to 1 ½ hours,” says Subhash Saluja, an ADB roads consultant.
Despite its dilapidated condition, some 4,000 vehicles use the road daily, and the Spin-Boldak area is heavily congested.
Traffic is heavy because this is the shortest route from Kabul or Herat to/from the nearest port of Karachi in Pakistan.
ADB is a lead donor in Afghanistan’s road sector, and repairing the southern road is only the beginning of an extensive support program.
In the works are plans to rehabilitate much of the northern section of Afghanistan’s Ring Road, linking the cities of Pol-e-Khomri, Mazar-e-Sharif, Sheberghan, and Andkhoy, which is near the border with Turkmenistan.
ADB also plans to finance the construction of highways from Sheberghan to Herat and from Herat to Bamian, as well as links to neighboring countries.
“Rebuilding the road network will not only contribute to expediting economic recovery and growth in Afghanistan, but will also promote regional trade,” says ADB Project Specialist (Transport) Hasan Masood.
Landlocked Afghanistan is surrounded by People’s Republic of China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The project following the Kandahar-Spin Boldak road is the rehabilitation of the 392-km road between Pol-e-Khomri and Andkhoy, which includes links to Uzbekistan (Naibabad-Hairatan, 55 km) and Turkmenistan (Andkhoy-Aquina, 36 km).
This will be financed under a $150 million loan for the Emergency Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Projects approved by ADB in June 2003.
Following that is the upgrading and paving of the 615-km stretch from Andkhoy to Herat, earmarked under another proposed $150 million loan in ADB’s pipeline of assistance in 2004, subject to ADB Board approval. Beyond that, ADB’s assistance in the road sector for 2005 could include rehabilitation of the 800-km Central Afghan highway or other secondary links based on the priorities identified in consultation with the Government.
All these projects will be two-lane highways, and cofinancing will be required from other funding agencies.
Warring parties damaged or destroyed over 80% of the country’s main roads to frustrate movements of the other side. Now repairing the roads is a vital building block in the peace effort.
Find out more about ADB's activities in Afghanistan
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