{"id":4311,"date":"2011-10-30T19:00:31","date_gmt":"2011-10-30T19:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/?p=4311"},"modified":"2011-10-30T19:00:31","modified_gmt":"2011-10-30T19:00:31","slug":"government-railways-department-to-be-formed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/government-railways-department-to-be-formed\/","title":{"rendered":"Government railways department to be formed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to the 17 October 2011 <a href=\"http:\/\/mom.gov.af\/en\/news\/4101\" title=\"Technical research for Kabul-Mazir and Kabul-Torkham railways begins soon\">Ministry of Mines statement<\/a> which said MCC is to commission a Chinese firm to undertake surveys for railways from Kabul to Torkham and the Hayratan line, Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani &#8220;stressed that the creations of most of railways are related to mining projects therefore <em>for the time being all of railways projects will be related to the Ministry of Mines<\/em>&#8220;.<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-4311-1' id='fnref-4311-1' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(4311)'>1<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n<p>However, on 19 October 2011 a US$222m grant agreement was signed in Kabul by Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal and the Asian Development Bank&#8217;s Country Director Robert Rinker.<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-4311-2' id='fnref-4311-2' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(4311)'>2<\/a><\/sup> The Minister of Finance said $189m of this was for road projects, according to a news report, while the rest would be used &#8220;to establish an independent railways department&#8221;. This will be &#8220;<em>within the framework of the Ministry of Public Works<\/em>, which will supervise the construction of rail tracks.&#8221;<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-4311-3' id='fnref-4311-3' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(4311)'>3<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n<p>The Deputy Public Works Minister, Eng Ahmad Shah Waheed, said a commission led by the presidential advisor on economics affairs and comprising representatives from the ministries of Public Works, Finance, Economy and Commerce has been set up &#8220;to evolve a mechanism for the railways department&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>So is there a risk of a turf war between the ministries of Mines and Public Works? I&#8217;ve been led to believe that the Minister of Mines is a powerful figure, as mining rights could potentially generate significant income for a country which lacks many source of revenue.<\/p>\n<div class='footnotes' id='footnotes-4311'>\n<div class='footnotedivider'><\/div>\n<ol>\n<li id='fn-4311-1'> <a href=\"http:\/\/mom.gov.af\/en\/news\/4101\">Technical research for Kabul-Mazir and Kabul-Torkham railways begins soon<\/a>, Ministry of Mines, dated 17 October 2011, published 18 October 2011 <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-4311-1'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li id='fn-4311-2'> <a href=\"http:\/\/mof.gov.af\/en\/news\/4133\">ADB Provides $US 222 Million for Roads Construction in Afghanistan<\/a>, Ministry of Finance, 19 October 2011 <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-4311-2'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li id='fn-4311-3'> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brecorder.com\/top-news\/1-front-top-news\/32454-adb-to-give-222mn-for-roads-rail-tracks-to-afghanistan-.html\">ADB to give $222mn for roads, rail tracks to Afghanistan<\/a>, News Network International, 20 October 2011 <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-4311-3'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the 17 October 2011 Ministry of Mines statement which said MCC is to commission a Chinese firm to undertake surveys for railways from Kabul to Torkham and the Hayratan line, Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani &#8220;stressed that the creations of most of railways are related to mining projects therefore for the time being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[12,119,120],"class_list":["post-4311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistans-railways","category-photographs","tag-adb","tag-ministry-of-mines","tag-ministry-of-public-works"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}