Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Following the inauguration of Khaf-Herat Railway Project and announcement of Iran’s readiness to invest $2.2 billion in Afghanistan to complete the final phase of this railway and to connect it to Mazar-e-Sharif, Iran’s railway route will eventually reach China, ISNA reported on Sunday.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani officially inaugurated the strategic Khaf-Herat railway project on December 10, 2020 through a video conference.
The 225-kilometers-long Khaf-Herat railway is part of the Iran-Afghanistan rail corridor. The project started in the fiscal year of 2007-2008, connects Iran’s eastern city of Khaf to Afghanistan’s western city of Ghoryan.
The project was implemented in four parts, Iran was in charge of completing three of the mentioned four parts, two of which are in the Iranian territory and the other two are on the Afghan side.
“Herat- Mazar-e-Sharif Railway Project with a total investment of $2.2 billion is one of the projects that is planned to be conducted by Iranian companies. This route can provide a rail link between Iran and Central Asia and China. The length of this railway is 656 kilometers and it has been officially announced that this railway will be implemented and put into operation by the Iranian private sector,” advisor to Iran’s Roads and Urban Development Minister, Hossein Mir-Shafi’ explained.
He further noted that positive talks have been also held in the field of road construction and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Works has introduced their priority transit and transportation projects to the Iranian side.
“Following this, the Iranian Ministry of Roads and Urban Development has held preliminary talks with the Association of Exporters of Engineering Services and announced the areas for mutual cooperation with the Afghan counterpart; Iran is going to invest at least $3.1 billion in Afghanistan’s road construction projects.”
