We can’t wait for Pakistan to build highway: Awjan

JALALABAD (PAN River and the second lane of the Jalalabad-Torkham highway would be constructed with a development outlay of $150 million allocated to eastern Nangarhar province, an official said on Thursday.

Construction work on the second bridge next to the 360-metre-long old Behsud Link would be launched next month, Public Works Minister Najibullah Awjan told joint press conference with Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Daud Ali Najafi during their trip to Nangarhar.

Work on the second lane of the Jalalabad-Torkham road would also be launched on the completion of a survey next week by a team of the ministry, he said, adding that they would not wait any longer for Pakistan to construct the highway.

The 75-kilometre road’s construction was launched with financial support from Pakistan in 2007, but the project had been incomplete despite repeated promises by Pakistani officials to resume the work.

According to Awjan, the Kabul-Sarobi road through the mountainous Lataband area of Kabul and the two bridges in Nangarhar would also be built soon.

For his part, Najafi said that his ministry would provide some public transport buses to the provincial authorities and the Nangarhar airport would transition from foreign troops to the Afghan government in near future.

However, a resident of the Behsud, Haji Mohammad Ali, doubted the ministerial pledges. He alleged several ministers had come to the province and held out such promises in the past but they never honoured what they said.

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