Nuristanis travel thru neighboring provinces to reach Paron

PARON (Pajhwok): Residents of six districts in eastern Nuristan province say they travel through neighboring provinces to reach Paron City, the provincial capital, due to lack of a direct road.
Noogram, Doab, Mandol, Want Waigal, Kamdesh and Bargi Matal are districts that are not directly connected to Paron City. The residents of these districts travel to Laghman, Nangarhar and Kunar to reach Paron City.
Dayee Gul, a resident of Doab district, told Pajhwok Afghan News it took two days to reach Paron in a car.
He said if the government constructed Kordarteen road, it would enable people to reach Paron in few hours.
Abdul Rahim, a resident of Anesh village of Mandol district, said that Kordarteen was a strategic road that connected western Nuristan to the center.
He said the previous government had launched construction work on the road, but it could not be completed. He said: “This road connects Bazargkhelo area of Noorgram district with Kordar 3 of Wama district. The work on this road was once completed, but snowfall and floods destroyed it.”
Enayatullah, a resident of Want Waigal district, said work on the road connecting the six districts with the provincial capital had been stopped. He urged the government to complete the road to ease the affairs of residents.
Residents of two districts of eastern Nuristan, Kamdesh and Bergi Matal, also say they travel through Kunar’s Ghaziabad, Asmar, Shigal, Asadabad, Watapur, Pechdara and Chapa Dara and enter back to Nuristan.
Shar Malik Faqiri, a resident of Kamdesh district, told Pajhwok that work on the road connecting two districts of east Nuristan has long been stopped.
He urged the government to restart construction of the old road in Kamdesh and Bergi Matal districts in order to directly connect the districts to Paron.
Nuristan Public Works chief Maulvi Ahmad Nabi Adel says this year significant achievements in terms of the province’s development have been made and progress achieved in connecting the districts.
He added a basic bridge has been approved in Korder area at a cost of 25 million afghanis and work on it was ongoing.
He added that the Ministry of Public Works had the plan to connect districts of Nuristan in coordination with the Ministry of Rural Reconstruction and Development and practical work will start soon.
Abdul Shakur Akbarzai, media officer at Nuristan Rural Development Department, told Pajhwok that connecting six districts of Nuristan had been included in the budget provided by the World Bank during the previous government, but the projects had to be postponed.
“This year the ministry has budget for connecting eastern Nuristan with the center and to connect Kamdesh and Bargamtal districts with the capital.”
According to Akbarzai, they held meetings with international institutions to connect Kordarteen and other roads and they have promised to work on these roads this year.