The customs officials at Sher Khan Bandar port in Kunduz province said that the revenues from this port have unprecedentedly increased in recent months.

According to the officials, more over 300 million Afghanis have been earned from off transit goods in the last 15 months, a significant rise compared to the last year.

Shir Khan Bandar officials believe that one of the factors contributing to the port's increased revenue is the transit of coal to Pakistan.

"Commercial goods, coal, travels to Pakistan via Tajikistan, and sometimes ... is transferred to Turkmenistan via Aqeena,” said Khairullah Sebghat, operational manager of Shir Khan Bandar customs.

Drivers are pleased with the growth in their business at this port, but they also complain about some of the difficulties they face there.

"Costs that were in transit before do not exist now. Much ease has been provided for the workers, and drivers have been given good employment opportunities," said driver Hasti Khan.

"The problem that we face is that we pay the transit cost to the agency at one area, and the other agency also charges us 150 Afghanis also,” said Ghulam Nabi, another driver.

"We have a visa problem, and we don't have other problems, there is no difficulty with the transit now,” said Sekandar, a Tajik driver.

According to officials of the Kunduz Chamber of Commerce and Investment, the major problems for the traders are the lack of visa issuance by Tajikistan, and banking issues.

"Our businessmen have a problem with visas. It has been a long time since Tajikistan has not issued visas and Afghanistan has neither. We ask both sides to provide business opportunities for businessmen,” said Abdul Mateen Yousefzai, deputy of Kunduz Chamber of Commerce and Investment.

Shir Khan Bandar, in the northeast of the country, is one of the key commercial ports linking Afghanistan to Central Asian countries via Tajikistan.