By Susan B. Glasser Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, August 7, 2002; Page A01
KABUL, Afghanistan -- For months, the Asian Development Bank had promised that it would take on one of the biggest headaches in postwar Afghanistan: the cratered, agonizingly slow highway connecting Kabul with Kandahar. The project to rehabilitate the major artery between the country's two largest cities was estimated to cost $150 million, the largest single investment in Afghanistan's infrastructure since the collapse of Taliban rule last November.
Instead, the deal fell apart.
In meetings last month, the bank demanded that the Afghan government accept loans to finance the project. Frustrated with international donors that have promised to help rebuild the country, only to impose conditions the fledgling government cannot meet, the Afghans said no. "They're pulling out," said a top aide to President Hamid Karzai. "Their excuse is that we won't accept loans, but in reality it is too big a project for them."
The Kabul-Kandahar project is not the only road work stalled by the combination of balky donors, the slow pace of bureaucracy and the daunting logistics of accomplishing anything in a barely functioning country. In fact, not a single major road project has been started since the fall of the Taliban.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52452-2002Aug6?language=printer
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