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Public Works Defends Itself Over Highway Construction Delays

Only four percent of the work on the Qaisar-Laman ring road project in Badghis has been completed, four months after President Ashraf Ghani officially inaugurated the project. 

According to officials, the asphalting process has not even started. 

The Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) said that government will soon lay asphalt but that the tender process for two remaining sections still needs to be carried out. 

Economic experts have raised the issue of slow progress on the economically important project, warning that a lack of interest within government to speed up the construction process will eventually discourage financial partners and project donors.

The first and second phase of the ring road is 82km of the total 233 km-ring road. The two phases of the project will be complete in 913 days, according to a Presidential Palace statement.

Once the road is completed, South Asia will be linked to Central Asia, it said.

“Soon the asphalting process will start on the first and second sections which is 82kms long, the remaining sections or the third and fourth sections have been put out for international bidding; companies have participated in this, we are currently assessing the companies, and practical work will start on it,” said Mahdi Rouhani, a spokesman for the MoPW. 

“If the project does not proceed in the right way, donors will be disappointed, the government should undertake serious monitoring of such mega economic projects,” economic analyst Ebadullah Darman said. 

Afghanistan's ring road is part of a 3,360 kilometers highway project, connecting 16 provinces and major cities such as Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Kandahar, Ghazni and Jalalabad.

In December, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced the approval of $150 million USD for the construction of the remaining parts of the country’s ring road.

According to the Asian Development Bank, with the help of the bank's new budget, 151kms of the final ring road from the Qaisar area to the Dar-e-Boom area in Badghis will be constructed using this money.

The Qaisar-Laman ring road project , at 233kms long, is one of Afghanistan’s new road projects and will cost an estimated $400 million.

Officials at the Ministry of Public Works in September 2014 said that the project was awarded to a Turkish-American Company called ICCI two years earlier, with an agreement mostly in favor of the contractor. But later reports surfaced in the media that the company failed to complete the project and fled the country with $100 million.

Public Works Defends Itself Over Highway Construction Delays

Experts have raised the issue of slow progress being made on the construction of the key highway that was agreed to years ago. 

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Only four percent of the work on the Qaisar-Laman ring road project in Badghis has been completed, four months after President Ashraf Ghani officially inaugurated the project. 

According to officials, the asphalting process has not even started. 

The Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) said that government will soon lay asphalt but that the tender process for two remaining sections still needs to be carried out. 

Economic experts have raised the issue of slow progress on the economically important project, warning that a lack of interest within government to speed up the construction process will eventually discourage financial partners and project donors.

The first and second phase of the ring road is 82km of the total 233 km-ring road. The two phases of the project will be complete in 913 days, according to a Presidential Palace statement.

Once the road is completed, South Asia will be linked to Central Asia, it said.

“Soon the asphalting process will start on the first and second sections which is 82kms long, the remaining sections or the third and fourth sections have been put out for international bidding; companies have participated in this, we are currently assessing the companies, and practical work will start on it,” said Mahdi Rouhani, a spokesman for the MoPW. 

“If the project does not proceed in the right way, donors will be disappointed, the government should undertake serious monitoring of such mega economic projects,” economic analyst Ebadullah Darman said. 

Afghanistan's ring road is part of a 3,360 kilometers highway project, connecting 16 provinces and major cities such as Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Kandahar, Ghazni and Jalalabad.

In December, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced the approval of $150 million USD for the construction of the remaining parts of the country’s ring road.

According to the Asian Development Bank, with the help of the bank's new budget, 151kms of the final ring road from the Qaisar area to the Dar-e-Boom area in Badghis will be constructed using this money.

The Qaisar-Laman ring road project , at 233kms long, is one of Afghanistan’s new road projects and will cost an estimated $400 million.

Officials at the Ministry of Public Works in September 2014 said that the project was awarded to a Turkish-American Company called ICCI two years earlier, with an agreement mostly in favor of the contractor. But later reports surfaced in the media that the company failed to complete the project and fled the country with $100 million.

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