5,500 hired directly on canal project: Mujahid

KABUL (Pajhwok): Construction work on the 1^st phase of the Qush Tepa canal, a 60 billion afghanis project, has been completed and 5,500 people received direct employment on it.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the government’s chief spokesman, tweeted that he visited the canal in Balkh province on Friday.

He wrote most work on the 108 kilometres first phase had been completed. Work continues on other parts of the scheme.

According to him, about 5,500 people were directly employed on the mega project while thousands of others were hired indirectly.

The canal, 280 kilometres long and 100 metres wide, will irrigate 500,000 hectares of land in Balkh, Jawzjan and Faryab provinces.

He said about 250 companies were working on the project. On a daily basis, 650,000 metres of the canal were dug up. So far, the digging of 42 million cubic metres had been completed.

A feasibility study was carried out in 2018 for the canal, which is considered one of the mega projects at the regional level.

The 380-km long canal can carry 10 billion cubic meters of water from the Amu River. The canal, 8.5 metres deep, can irrigate half a million hectors of land in Balkh, Jawzjan and Faryab provinces.

sa/mud