A 121-kilometer transit road linking Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province to the Chinese border through the Wakhan Corridor officially opened on Sunday, October 4, as part of a project costing 365 million afghanis ($5.5 million).
The gravel road begins in the Sarhad-e Broghil area of Wakhan district and extends to the zero point on the border with China.
The project was implemented in two phases and included the leveling and graveling of the route, as well as the construction of four major bridges, 66 culverts and about 3,100 meters of retaining walls, according to Afghan officials.
Abdul Latif Mansour, Afghanistan’s acting Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, described the road as strategically, politically and economically important. He said Afghan engineers completed the project without foreign engineers or advisers.
Afghan officials have described the Wakhan route as the first overland transit road connecting Afghanistan directly to China. They say the road could help expand trade and transit between Afghanistan, China and other countries in the region.
The road passes through the remote Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of Afghan territory in Badakhshan that borders China’s Xinjiang region and lies between Tajikistan and Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region. The corridor is also considered an area with potential for tourism and regional connectivity.
The opening of the route could improve access to the remote Wakhan region and provide a potential land connection for future trade between Afghanistan and China. However, the road is currently unpaved, and Afghan officials have not publicly announced detailed customs and operational arrangements for regular commercial transit through the route.
Residents of Wakhan have welcomed the project while also calling for the road to be paved, particularly because winter snowfall can make travel in the mountainous region difficult.
