A one-hundred and fifty-five kilometre road will facilitate connections between Herat and Chist-eSharif in western Afghanistan, helping thousands of citizens come out of isolation, representing an important stretch of road connecting the eastern area to the western area of the country. The Italian government, with the support of Development Cooperation, allocated over 92 million euro for the construction of the155 kilometre road.
The signing ceremony of the financial agreement took place 1 February in Kabul, before the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the Italian Ambassador Roberto Cantone, the Director of AICS [Italian Agency for Development Cooperation) Rosario Centola, the Minister of Finance, Eklil Hakimi, and the Minister of Public Works, Mahmood Baligh.
The project is under scrutiny before beginning to work on portions of the construction, which are expected to be completed in three-four years. It will be funded with a credit line stipulated between Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and the Afghan Ministry of Finance for a total amount of 92,271,824 euros, besides the 2 million euros donated to UNOPS (UN Office for Projects and Services) for the technical assistance on the construction. Once completed, the road will become the strategic commercial route for the upcoming intermodal hub in Herat, which will include programmes intersecting road, rail and air transport systems.
Italy has been engaged in developing several infrastructure projects for over a decade in various areas in western Afghanistan, such as the Herat bypass, the railway which will connect Herat to Marshad, and the ugrade of the airport according to interantiocal ICAO standards, with a financial allocation exceeding 277 million euros.
