New Delhi
20 July 2006
New Delhi is likely to send "reinforcements" for accelerating the
work of constructing a network of roads linking Afghanistan with Iran. They will
supplement the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel working there, according to
well-placed sources tracking India's involvement in the region.
The sources said that the "reinforcements" in "significant" numbers will go towards an
"additional section" of road that India is expected to build. This will be in addition to
some of the projects which the Indian agencies like the BRO are already undertaking on
the outskirts of Kabul.
The decision to despatch engineers and other personnel comes despite New Delhi
suffering reversals of the killings of Indian personnel working in Afghanistan. A BRO
driver Maniappan Raman Kutty was killed by the Taliban last year. Another Indian
engineer, K Suryanarayana, was killed in May this year.
India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding in January 2003 to
augment Afghanistan's connectivity and access to the coast. The BRO is constructing the
218-kilometre road that will link Delaram on the main Kandahar-Herat highway in
Afghanistan and Zaranj on the Iran border.
The Rs 377-crore project is being funded by India and will provide the landlocked nation
a shorter transit route (by about 700 km) to the sea via the Iranian port of Chabahar than
it now has through Pakistan. It was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security on
February 4, 2004.
Under this project, Iran is building a new transit route to connect Milak in the southeast
of Iran to Zaranj in Afghanistan. The sources said India would be able to use Chahbahar
port for transit. India and Iran have also agreed to build a railroad from Chahbahar to the
Iranian Central Railway System to link with the Karachi-Tehran Railway line, which goes
further westward, the sources added.
During Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's visit to India, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh pledged an additional 50 million dollars in assistance to Kabul, bringing the total
Indian pledge to 650 million dollars. Several Indian companies are engaged in
Afghanistan and undertaking infrastructure projects.
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