DAB branch gets new building in Takhar

TALOQAN/KUNDUZ (PAN Bank (DAB) branch was inaugurated in northeastern Takhar province on Tuesday, an official said.

The two-storey building has security cameras, eight administrative rooms, a conference hall, a treasury and other allied facilities, said Shafiqullah Shafique,

DAB director for the northeastern zone.

He told the inauguration ceremony the building cost $377,873 and took 10 months to complete. Before DAB officials were housed in a small rented building which lacked facilities, he recalled.

The central bank vice-president Mohammad Essa Turab, who attended the ceremony, called on residents to support government efforts at boosting the country’s financial situation. He urged the use of Afghan currency instead of foreign.

Speaking on the occasion, Takhar Revenue Director Mohammad Fayyaz said financial institutions always cooperated with each other and worked in close coordination.

DAB officials said 40 branches of commercial banks had been operational in northeastern zone — Takhar, Kunduz, Baghlan and Badakhshan provinces — over the past few years.

Meanwhile, the foundation stones of two veterinary clinics were also laid in Taloqan, the provincial capital.

The US-funded projects were estimated to cost $1,700,000 and would be completed in four months, Agriculture Director Mohammad Sayee told Pajhwok Afghan News.

In neighbouring Kunduz province, construction work on a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts was launched in Qala-i-Zal district on Tuesday.

The $260,912 project, funded by the Ministry of Counternarcotics, was being built over two acres of land, said Kunduz counternarcotics department head, Abdul Basir Murshid.

He added about 18,000 people in the town were addicted to drugs, with women constituting 30 percent. More than 30,000 people are drug addicts in Kunduz, including 6,000 registered this year alone.

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