The Chinese news platform notes that in the effort to rebuild Afghanistan now, “two large infrastructure projects with Afghanistan’s direct neighbors – Central Asian countries, India and Pakistan – could become especially important.”
“Among them, the project for constructing the Kabul rail corridor from Termez in Uzbekistan to the Pakistani city of Peshawar through Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul seems to be very relevant. The railway could carry up to 20 million tons of cargo per year. The section from Termez to Mazar-i-Sharif, built by Uzbekistan, has already been commissioned. The new government has yet to make the remaining 573-km section to Peshawar. The railway passage from Mazar-i-Sharif to Kabul, which, according to preliminary estimates, has a budget of $5 billion, is supposed to be built mainly with borrowed funds.
“The other critical project would be the TAPI gas pipeline, named after the four countries it will pass – Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The 1,814-km pipeline is to run from the Galkynysh Gas Field in Turkmenistan to the Indian city of Fazilka through Herat and Kandahar in Afghanistan and the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Multan. Its capacity would be 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and experts estimate its cost at $8 billion-$10 billion.
As for the question whether the Taliban will okay these projects, CGTN notes that already three weeks back, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen called on the international community to invest in Afghanistan’s development, saying: “We have just emerged from the stage of war and destruction and entered a new phase when the people of Afghanistan need help from other countries. They can come and develop our natural resources,” he said, noting that the Taliban “appreciate the help of any state at such a critical moment in the history of Afghanistan.”
