Hairatan customs office gets cargo truck parking facility

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (Pajhwok): A modern parking facility for cargo truckers, constructed at a cost of 50 million afs, has been inaugurated at the Hairatan Custom Office in Balkh province.

In a statement, the governor’s office said on Tuesday a number of local officials participated in the opening ceremony for the parking lot.

Ministry of Finance (MoF) official Esmatullah Jalalzai said the 7.5 acre parking facility had accounted for 50 million afs. The project took seven months to complete.

A third of the parking area has a concrete cover while the rest is graveled, according to Jalalzai who said the facility had 19 sewage-system wells, a boundary wall and a green area.

Customs Director Mohammad Abdullah Bilal said MoF had allocated 100 million afs for the construction of parking lot and some other development projects. The projects will help resolve the problems that drivers face.

A number of the local businessmen hailed the initiative. One of them, Zubair Alizoi, recalled in the past, there was no such facility for truckers, who faced a host of problems.

Alizoi said: “The customs office had no standard parking facilities in the past. There was so much dust in the area due to the movement of trucks. On rainy days, there was mud all around, adding to drivers’ problems.”

In the meantime, work is underway to construct a canal with a length of more than eight kilometres in Naibabad area, close to the customs office, at a cost of 30 million afs.

aw/mud