30 years on, a highway awaits completion

TIRINKOT (Pajhwok): They have been waiting for three decades for the construction of the Kandahar-Uruzgan highway, but their repeated calls have fallen on deaf ears, residents of the central province say.

A run of governments, conveniently ignoring demands from Uruzgan inhabitants, has paid no attention to building the busy road.

A stretch of the 165-kilometre highway had been constructed by previous governments, but most the road remains unpaved, people say.

A truck driver and resident of this province, Matiullah, told Pajhwok Afghan News they had been waiting for years to see the highway paved and blacktopped.

He commented: “During 20 years of republican rule and three years into the Islamic Emirate’s second stint, our voice has not been heard. We want officials to pay urgent attention the lingering issue.”

For instance, he said, a truck overturned on the road last week in Kikhi area. The trucker and some other people suffered losses running into thousands of afghanis in the incident.

Sharifullah, another resident of the province, also stressed unpaved parts of the road must be constructed and blacktopped.

He said: “The officials concerned gravel, level and repair asphalted parts of the road every year. This solves the problem for the time being, but the road returns to its lousy condition.”

This highway gets even worse during rainy days of winter, Ahmadullah of Katasar area complained.

Most of the heavily loaded trucks or even other vehicles stuck in the mud during the winter, he called on the government to pay attention to the basic construction of this highway.

While the local officials refrain from commenting on the current condition of Kandahar-Uruzgan highway, but the governor spokesman Hafiz Samiullah Ekrima told Pajhwok an application for the basic construction of this highway was shared with the officials in the capital.

Ekrima said: “We are hopeful that the highway will be basically constructed in near future.”

The Kandahar-Uruzgan highway is the only carriageway that connected Uruzgan to other parts of the country and the current lousy conditions have faced the residents of this province with various challenges.

Aw/mud/nh