Afghanistan, India inaugurate major dam

Published June 04, 2016

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have inaugurated a multi-million-dollar dam in western Afghanistan that will bring power and irrigation to vast tracts of the war-torn country.

The Afghan-India Friendship Dam in Herat province, which borders Iran, was built with Indian aid at a cost of $300 million and was under construction for about a decade.

Modi arrived in Afghanistan Saturday for the formal inauguration of the project, which will provide 42 megawatts of power and irrigate 75,000 hectares (185,000 acres) of agricultural land.

Ghani hailed the dam as a symbol of bilateral ties with India. Afghanistan has cultivated closer ties with India in recent years as a balance to neighboring Pakistan, which has been accused of supporting the Taliban insurgency.

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