NIZHNII PYANZH (Tajikistan), June 18: Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, on Saturday laid the foundation stone of a US-funded bridge that will cross their countries’ river border, saying the structure would boost regional ties.
The bridge over the Pyanzh river is expected to cost 29 million dollars and is being paid for mainly by the United States.
The bridge will boost ties not only between the two countries but with neighbouring areas such as Russia and the Persian Gulf, Mr Rakhmonov said.
“This will be a bridge of friendship that will serve to strengthen cooperation and peace in the region,” the president added.
“For Tajikistan it opens a way through Afghanistan to the Gulf and the countries of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Afghanistan for its part will get access to Russia and China,” Mr Rakhmonov said.
President Karzai described the bridge ‘as a new step in our bilateral relations’.
“The bridge is emblematic not only of the historical connections between these two countries, but also of the international cooperation possible today in the region,” US President George Bush said in a statement read out at the ceremony by US Ambassador Richard Hoagland.
The construction comes amid efforts by a number of Central Asian countries to restore their historical role as a land bridge between surrounding regions by improving road and rail links.
Construction of the bridge, measuring 670 metres in length, is to get seriously under way when the water level lowers in the autumn and is expected to take two years.
It is to be carried out by Italian contractor Rizzani de Eccher under US supervision. —AFP
NIZHNII PYANZH (Tajikistan), June 18: Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, on Saturday laid the foundation stone of a US-funded bridge that will cross their countries’ river border, saying the structure would boost regional ties.
