Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul convoy along Highway 1

The Kabul–Kandahar Highway (NH0101) is a road linking

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

's two largest cities,

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

and

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...

, passing through Maidan Shar, Saydabad,

Ghazni Ghazni ( prs, غزنی, ps, غزني), historically known as Ghaznain () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana ( gr, Αλεξάνδρεια Ωπιανή), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan ...

, and

Qalati Ghilji fa, قلات خلجی , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = , image_skyline = , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = , image_flag = , flag_size ...

. This highway is a key portion of Afghanistan's national highway system or "National Highway 1". The entire highway from Kandahar to Kabul is on flat surface, with no mountain passes. Approximately 35 percent of Afghanistan's population lives within of the Kabul to Kandahar portion of the Ring Road.

Overview

The Kabul-Kandahar highway was in major disrepair due to over two decades of war and neglect. The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

funded the repair and rebuilding of of road (at a cost of about $190 million), while Japan funded . About of the highway were already usable prior to the repairs. The rebuilding project was overseen by the

Louis Berger Group Louis Berger (formerly known as Berger Group Holdings) is a full-service engineering, architecture, planning, environmental, program and construction management and economic development firm based in Morristown, New Jersey. Founded in 1953 in ...

, with assistance in planning and design by Turkish and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n engineers. Phase one of paving was completed in December 2003 and the highway was opened to traffic. The journey from Kandahar to Kabul generally took travelers 18 hours but, since the rebuilding, has been shortened to roughly 6 hours.

Route

The Kabul–Kandahar Highway traverses the

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Maidan Wardak Maidan Wardak (Pashto: ; Dari: ), also called Wardag or Wardak, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the central region of Afghanistan. It is divided into eight districts and has a population of approximately 500,00 The capital ...

Zabul Zabul (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the south of the country. It has a population of 249,000. Zabul became an independent province from neighbouring Kandahar in 1963. Historically, it was part of the Zabu ...

, and

Deaths

As of early 2004,

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

fighters continued to harass travelers of the corridor. Afghan guards, soldiers, mercenaries, and workers have been killed along the route. In October 2003, they kidnapped a Turkish contractor, and that December they kidnapped two Indian workers. In February 2004, Taliban rebels shot down a Louis Berger Group

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

, killing three. In March 2004, rebels murdered a Turkish engineer and an Afghan guard. Another Turkish engineer and a translator were kidnapped. This action prompted the United States to set up small civilian-military teams in three locations along the route. These teams no longer exist. On May 8, 2016, a major vehicular crash killed at least 73 and injured over 50 people along the Kabul-Kandahar highway in Moqor District of

Ghazni Province Ghazni (Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in southeastern Afghanistan. The province contains 19 districts, encompassing over a thousand villages and roughly 1.3 million people, making it the 5th most populous province. Th ...

. Two buses traveling from Kabul to Kandahar collided with a fuel tanker, causing a fiery inferno. The vehicles were reportedly speeding to avoid ambush by the

."Fuel-tanker crash kills over 70 in Afghanistan's Ghazni". Al-Jazeera May 8, 2016. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/afghanistan-road-crash-ghazni-160508115025713.html At least 35 persons died in September 2016 when a fuel tanker collided with a passenger bus.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kabul-Kandahar Highway Transport in Kabul Kandahar Roads in Afghanistan

Overview

Route

Deaths

See also

References

External links