A Road Project in Takhar Benefits 36,000 People

The reconstruction of a two-kilometer road in Taloqan District of Takhar Province kicked off on Saturday.

Funded by the Afghan-German Cooperation’s Regional Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), the project costs about AFN 109 million.

The reconstruction project starts at Pule-e-Jalat Village located five kilometers from downtown Taloqan along Kunduz-Takhar Highway and ends at Nowabad-e-Puleqak Village. Representatives of the local administration and Department of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (DRRD) attended the event.

The road connects the three districts of Chaal, Bangi, and Eshkamesh and will benefit around 36,000 citizens living in its vicinity. Currently, residents in the three districts face difficulties in transporting goods, agricultural products and livestock to the city center due to poor road conditions. Access to public, private and social services is constrained due to the dusty and sometimes muddy road conditions.

Upon completion, problems with dust pollution, caused by traffic during dry seasons, and the muddy road in winter will be resolved. The project will provide income opportunities to residents during the entire construction works. In the long term, it will provide greater socio-economic benefits to the locals, improving living conditions through quicker access to social services such as schools, health facilities, and markets, and it will help foster security and cultural relations between villages.

‘This project will improve the living conditions of the residents and significantly reduce the travel time between three districts and 20 villages. At the same time, the reconstructed road can be used as an alternative for the Takhar-Kunduz main highway to prevent traffic jams,” said Sebghatullah Nazari, provincial director of DRRD.

During the reconstruction, RIDF will offer ‘on-the-job’ training along with other training sessions for the DRRD engineers and managers at the provincial level. They aim at developing the department’s capacity to design, construct and maintain rural roads independently in the future.