€14m Italian grant for National Rural Access Programme

KABUL): Italy will provide a grant of €14 million to the Afghan Government’s National Rural Access Programme for the construction of roads in the countryside.

Minister of Finance Hazrat Omer Zakhilwal and Italian Ambassador to Afghanistan Claudio Glaentzer signed an agreement to the effect in Kabul Sunday.

Zakhilwal said the grant would be spent over next two years and a half by the Ministries of Public Works and Rural Rehabilitation and Development under the National Rural Access Programme in the western zone of the country.

At the signing ceremony, Eng. Abdul Sattar Salim, the programme coordinator, told Pajhwok Afghan News the grant would be spent on the construction of roads in Herat, Badghis, Farah and Ghor provinces.

Some of the roads would be asphalted while most of them graveled, he said, adding the programme was jointly being executed by the Ministries of Public Works and Rural Rehabilitation and Development.

Ambassador Glaentzer said Italy had granted the assistance to the programme, because roads were considered a basic need of life in Afghanistan. Ninety percent of the Italian assistance has been spent in accordance with the Afghan government’s priorities.

mbg/mud