I’ve been gathering some notes on coal mines in Afghanistan - I think there is something quite exciting to report soon - and then all of a sudden the BBC has this: Inside a crumbling Afghan coal mine by Quentin Sommerville, BBC News, Pul-e Khumri, northern Afghanistan.
Complete with pictures of the hand-worked narrow gauge railway.
Video of the railway in action. Keep going to the end for the tippler in action (and an abandoned tank).
More soon…!
Writing in Viewpoint: Measuring success in Afghanistan, Fotini Christia, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has recently spent time in Afghanistan researching conflict and development says:
The cost of transporting goods is increased by violence and the chances of being attacked on the roads. If transport costs on a route were to fall it would be a positive sign.
In 2007 Afghanistan’s lorry drivers’ union estimated that each vehicle pays more than $6,500 (£4,216) annually in taxes and bribes extorted on Afghanistan’s roads.
Such costs are an important measure of the security situation.
News from Railway Gazette International