• India
  • Nov 30
  • Mathew Gregory

India to launch projects worth $80 million in Afghanistan

India has unveiled new development initiatives for Afghanistan, including a dam to supply water to Kabul and 150 community projects worth $80 million.

India’s development portfolio is of more than $3 billion and is aimed at building the capabilities of the Afghan people and institutions with the aim of improving governance.

India also announced an agreement with Afghanistan to build Shahtoot Dam in the Kabul river basin to provide drinking water to two million residents of Kabul city. This will be built on the 202-km Pul-e-Khumri electricity transmission line built in 2009 to provide power to the city.

India will also launch some 150 projects worth $80 million as part of the fourth phase of its high impact community development projects initiative which is focused on smaller projects that can be completed speedily to benefit people in villages and districts.

Basically India’s developmental aid for Afghanistan was of five types:

    • large infrastructure projects such as the 218-km Delaram-Zaranj road that provides alternative connectivity through Iran, the India-Afghanistan friendship dam and the Parliament building,

    • human resource development,

    • humanitarian assistance,

    • high impact community projects

    • enhancing trade and investment through air and land connectivity

More than 65,000 students have studied in India under scholarship programmes, and 15,000 students are currently in India. Some 3,000 scholarships have been provided to Afghan women for higher studies, and vocational education is being provided to an increasing number of women in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s growth has been constrained by its land-locked geography, and the India-developed Chabahar port in Iran has provided alternative connectivity that helped transport 75,000 tonnes of wheat and more than 20 tonnes of medicines and equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)

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