Announcement of Five Million Dollar Credit for Road Maintenance in Afghanistan on June 11, 1969

..:I/. FOR IMMED~AT'E RELE.ASE / • INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION 1818 H STREET, N.W .. WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 IDA Press Release No. 69/21 Subject: $5 million credit for road June 11, 1969 maintenance in Afghanistan The long-range objective of a road maintenance project, for which a $5 mil- lion credit from the International Development Association (IDA) was announced today, is the establishment of a road maintenance organization trained and equipped to assume responsibility for effectively maintaining the entire high- way network in Afghanistan. A technical assistance grant of about $1.7 million from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is expected to complement the credit. • Highways are the principal means of transportation in Afghanistan, both for domestic and international traffic. In the past 10 years the highway net- work has been expanded from about 4,000 miles to 11,000 miles. This includes a primary system of about 1,300 miles of paved roads which was designed and built mainly with financing from the USSR and the USA. It connects important population, agricultural, and industrial centers to the capital, Kabul, and has branches leading to neighboring count.ries. The principal problem in the transport sector has been the imbalance between investments for new highways and expenditures for maintenance work. For the fore- seeable future the highway network will need only minor additions to serve th2 country adequately, but there is an urgent and critical need for establishing sound highway maintenance operations to prevent a serious deterioration of some existing primary roads • • Consultants financed under a World Bank grant of $155,000 in 1966 made a study· of Afghanistan's road maintenance requirements and recommended measures /more ._ IDA P.R. No. 69/21 - Afghanistan Road .Maintenance • to improve maintenance operations. from this study. - 2 - The project now being financed follows directly It will institute a 4-year road maintenance program for selected roads in the eastern region of the country, which has the highest road and traffic density. This program will serve to demonstrate modern methods for eventual appli- cation throughout the country. The IDA credit will be used to finance imports of road maintenance and work- shop equipment, tools, spare parts and materials, such as steel and bitumen. The UNDP grant, for which the World Bank will be Executing Agency, will finance a team of consultants which will provide guidance and advice to the Ministry of Public Works on the reorganization of the Road Maintenance Directorate and the introduc- tion of modern highway maintenance practices. • The total cost of the project is estimated at the equivalent of about $10.8 million. The $5 million IDA credit and the $1.7 million UNDP grant will cover $6.7 million of this amount and the remaining $4.1 million will be provided by the Government of Afghanistan. The IDA credit will be extended to Afghanistan for a term of 50 years, in- cluding a 10-year grace period. It will be intereijt-free~ but a service charge of 3/4 of 1% will be made to cover IDA's administrative expenditures. - 0 - •