Hairatan – Mazar-e-Sharif railway to be completed soon

Minister of Finance Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal (left) with Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda (right).

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance announced to the media today that a key railroad project, the construction of the Hairatan – Mazar-e-Sharif railway, will be completed in 4 months. In a press release issued today, the Ministry stated that “the new railway line will connect Mazar-e-Sharif to Hairatan, on the northern border with Uzbekistan, removing bottlenecks, boosting regional trade, and facilitating the flow of humanitarian assistance.”

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will finance the project at a cost of 165 million dollars. The president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Haruhiko Kuroda met with Afghanistan’s Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal today, and traveled to Mazar-e-Sharif to see the construction site.

According to the press release: “From 2002 to the end of 2009, ADB provided Afghanistan with approximately $2.1 billion in Asian Development Fund (ADF) loans, ADF grants, technical assistance, donor-funded co-financing and grant investment projects, and private sector investments.”

May 25, 2010 · admin · No Comments
Posted in: Afghanistan's Economy, Reconstruction and Development