Afghanistan hopes new roads lead to recovery

SALANG PASS, Afghanistan - Afghan and Western officials took a bone-shaking ride into the Hindu Kush mountains Saturday to launch the reconstruction of a key highway that they hope will boost Afghanistan's shattered economy.

Emergency repairs will begin shortly on a 110-mile stretch of road from the capital, Kabul, reopening the way to the country's north - and to historic trade routes to Central Asia.

Afghan ministers, World Bank officials and foreign contractors got firsthand experience of the road's treacherous state, as their convoy of off-road vehicles bounced up the dusty trail scattered with deep potholes and improvised bridges.

"We can't let the north drift away from the south - they must be united," said Afghan Minister of Public Works Abdullah Ali before snipping a ribbon across the last bridge before the final climb to the Salang Pass.

International donors have pledged millions to rebuild the entire national road network in support of President Hamid Karzai's efforts to knit the country back together and raise living standards after more than two decades of war.

Work has also begun on routes from Kabul to Kandahar and Gardez, and from the western city of Herat to the Iranian border. A 310-mile trip to Kandahar, which once took 16 hours, now takes eight.

"The road is life," said Khial Mohammed Husseini, the deputy governor of Ghazni province, which lies on the Kabul-Kandahar road.

"If my friend was sick it took a long time to bring him here. Now it's fast. If I wanted to take my sack of flour to market, the road would be bumpy and I would wreck my car."

But progress has been slow, hampered by attacks on workers in former strongholds of the Taliban regime ousted at the end of 2001, and logistical problems in a country which bakes in summer and freezes in winter.

To tackle the most urgent bottlenecks, the World Bank in July released $108-million, part of which is paying for work on the stretch of road toured Saturday, from Kabul to Doshi, the first major town on the northern side of the Hindu Kush range.

The route is currently closed completely for refurbishment of a tunnel, forcing long detours over equally treacherous routes further west.

Trucks will be let through in a few weeks, though the reconstruction isn't due to be completed until February 2005.

Ali conceded that that the pace of the work was frustrating. But he said planning alone - much of it in the hands of Western firms - has taken a year, and that tendering and bringing in equipment has been done as quickly as possible.

"Everybody has been waiting for reconstruction, especially of the roads. But it isn't easy," Ali said, adding that the whole network should be renewed by early 2006.

While the roadwork in the country's north is complicated by the danger of mines and unexploded ordinance left behind mostly by former Soviet forces, it is resurgent Taliban militants that are hampering work in the south.

Officials said insurgents killed at least six road workers at the end of August. About 700 soldiers have been deployed to protect the work.

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