India’s plan to boost trade with Afghanistan by connecting the country’s main Garland Highway network with a deep-sea port in Iran has received a setback as a crucial link road project has got delayed by over a year. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), entrusted to construct a 218 km stretch from Delaram in Afghanistan to Zaranj town on the Iran border by December 2007, has said work slowed down after the beheading of a driver, Maniappan Kutty, by the Taliban in November last year.

The project is crucial, as it would allow India to bypass Pakistan and get a direct trade link to Afghanistan through Iran’s Chabahar deep-sea port. The link would also give India access to Central Asian Republics through Afgh-anistan. It will cut the Kandahar-Chabahar distance by about 1,000 km.

While BRO says the first 109 km stretch will get completed by March 2007, it has managed to complete only 50 km of ‘black topped’ road till now as the pace of work dropped drastically after the killing.

“It is no longer possible to work after last light due to the Taliban threat. We were earlier putting in two work shifts but now can work only till daylight permits,” Lt Gen KS Rao, Director General Border Roads, told The Indian Express.

The workforce has been provided security by local authorities but movement is restricted due to which the organisation works on a single eight-hour shift instead of the two six-hour shifts being put in daily before the killing, he added. While BRO is planning to send in extra equipment to increase the work pace, there are no plans to send in extra personnel to assist the 300 employees in Afghanistan. “There is no current proposal to increase the work force on the project,” Lt Gen Rao said.

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