KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – 50 miles in 12 hours.
The distance and average time it can take to get from Kandahar City to the province’s northwestern Khakrez District Center.
That is because 20 miles of that distance is a gravel througoughfare known as Route Highlife – a crumbling and virtually impassable, IED-laden road .
But hope for swifter travel and for the prosperity of Khakrez’s residents is changing.
A reconstruction project to pave the road kicked off March 10, and once the project is complete, will bring the 12-hour travel time down to less then two hours.
The multi-million-dollar project to repair and lay asphalt on Route Highlife began with a groundbreaking ceremony at the district center – signifying the beginning of construction on a five-mile stretch of the road.
“We would like to thank the hard work of the government, the Afghan people and coalition forces for the road construction project,” said District Governor Hajji Abdul Qayum Khan, speaking to those gathered before the ceremony began. “Thanks to their work, road construction begins today.”
Khan stood shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow Afghan leaders, shovel in hand, and spoke to a crowd of nearly 200 Khakrez residents outside the district center and Shah Maqsud Shrine.
He, along with Brig. Gen. Didand Lawang, commander, 1st Commando Brigade, Afghan National Army; Hajji Said Jan Khakrezwal, Kandahar Provincial Council leader and Attah Mohammed, shura leader, took part in breaking ground where asphalt will soon be laid by Afghanistan’s Sherzai Construction Company.
“The road will only bring more opportunities to the people of Khakrez,” said Khakrezwal. “There will be Khakrez workers to build the roads, and soon Khakrez will see schools and clinics thanks to the road.”
The current Route Highlife was built as a triple-compacted gravel road in 2005, said Capt. Mike Adams, head of civil affairs at Special Operations Task Force – South.
“But there weren’t any culverts built in, and when it rained it just washed sections of the road away,” he said.
However, with the paving of Route Highlife, a project Adams estimates will take a year; drainage will be allowed for and more people will be able to drive safely down the highway.
“The asphalt will make it harder for insurgents to plant IEDs, and with security on the road, more people will travel to Khakrez,” he added.
Tourism once flourished in Khakrez when the road was well.
It’s a place that holds one of what Afghans say is the country’s third holiest shrine, the Shah Maqsud Shrine.
Not many years past, thousands of people would travel from Kandahar City to visit the shrine and stay the weekend at the foothills of the mountains of which it is surrounded, said life-long Khakrez resident, Hajji Gul Mohammed.
“When we had security, we always had people come visit the shrine,” he said. “But without the road, without security, the people stopped coming.”
This in turn led to closures at the bazaar near the shrine and district center. Less work was to be had because people didn’t feel safe enough to travel from the city to Khakrez. But once the road is complete, Mohammed said, the people and the prosperity will come back.
“The road will bring work and money to Khakrez,” he said. “It will bring the people back. Of that we are thankful.”
| Date Taken: |
03.13.2011 |
| Date Posted: |
03.14.2011 08:52 |
| Story ID: |
67016 |
| Location: |
KANDAHAR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: |
146 |
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