Modi inaugurates US$290 mln dam in Afghanistan

HERAT, Afghanistan: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Afghanistan yesterday to inaugurate a US$290 million hydroelectric dam with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the latest Indian investment which highlights strengthening ties between the two countries.

The 42 megawatt Salma dam in western Herat province, bordering Iran, is one of two major projects carried out under India’s development partnership with Afghanistan. India has poured more than 2 billion into the country since the Taliban was toppled from power in 2001.

Modi and Ghani jointly pressed a button to start the turbines at the dam as engineers released colourful balloons in celebration.

“With the inauguration of the ‘Afghanistan-India friendship dam’ the first such large Indian-funded project is completed,” Ghani said at the ceremony.

“We hope that this will lead to the development of many such projects.”

Construction on Salma dam, which will boost Afghanistan’s power capacity and help irrigate thousands of hectares of farm land, had been stalled by decades of fighting.

“Afghans and Indians dreamt of this project in the 1970s,” Modi said.

“Today the brave Afghan people are sending a message that the forces of destruction, death, denial and domination shall not prevail.”

New Delhi, the fifth largest bilateral donor in Afghanistan, has been a key supporter of Kabul’s post-Taliban government, a stance that has led analysts to point to the threat of a “proxy war” in Afghanistan between India and Pakistan. — AFP