The Asian Development Bank has pledged to give Afghanistan a $165 million grant to build a railway which it hopes will be a major step in linking the war-torn but strategically located nation with the world. Work will start in March on the project, which will connect Uzbekistan with northern Afghanistan at the Afghan border town of Hairaton, deputy Public Works Minister Walid Mohammad Rasouli told Reuters on Thursday.
A second track is expected to link Afghanistan with its southern neighbour Pakistan at the border town of Spin Boldak. Land-locked Afghanistan has been a trading route for thousands of years. Its location between oil and gas-rich Central Asia, Iran and the vast markets of the South Asian subcontinent mean that schemes for pipelines and railways have been contemplated for decades but stalled because of war.