Transportation in Afghanistan
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Transportation in Afghanistan:
Landlocked Afghanistan has no functioning railways, but the Amu Darya (Oxus) River, which forms part of Afghanistan's border with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, has barge traffic. During their occupation of the country, the Soviets completed a bridge across the Amu Darya and built a motor vehicle and railroad bridge between Termez and Jeyretan.
Most road building occurred in the 1960s, funded by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The Soviets built a road and tunnel through the Salang Pass in 1964, connecting northern and southern Afghanistan. A highway connecting the principal cities of Herat, Kandahar, Ghazni, and Kabul with links to highways in neighboring Pakistan formed the primary road system.
The highway system requires almost total reconstruction, and regional roads are in a state of disrepair. The poor state of the Afghan transportation and communication networks has further fragmented and hobbled the struggling economy.
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Railways
There are 24.6 kilometers of broad gauge railways.
Railway links from adjacent countries
- Iran - no
- Pakistan - no
- railhead on border at Chaman - 1.676m gauge
- railhead on border at Khyber Pass - 1.676m gauge
- Turkmenistan - 9.6 km 1.524-m gauge from Gushgy (Turkmenistan) to Towraghondi;
- Uzbekistan - 15 km 1.524-m gauge from Termiz (Uzbekistan) to Kheyrabad transshipment point on south bank of Amu Darya (2001)
- China - no
- Tajikistan - no
- [1] (http://www.ajg41.clara.net/afghannews.html) for news
Highways
(1998 est.)There are 2,793 kilometers of paved roads and 18,207 kilometers of unpaved roads, for a total road system of 21,000 kilometers.
Waterways
There are 1,200 kilometers of waterways. Most of that total is made up of the Amu Darya River, which can handle vessels with weights up to 500 tons.
Pipelines
There are petroleum pipelines from Bagram, Afghanistan into Uzbekistan and Shindand, Afghanistan into Turkmenistan. These pipelines have been is disrepair and disuse for years. There are 180 kilometers of natural gas pipelines. There is a proposal for a natural gas pipeline across Afghanistan into Pakistan. See Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline
Ports and harbors
Ports are located at [[Kheyrabad] and Shir Khan.
Airports
There are 47 airports. 10 of these have paved runways. Of those, 3 have runways over 3000 meters, 4 have runways between 2500 and 3000 meters, 2 have runways between 1500 and 2500 meters, and 1 has a runway under 1000 meters. 37 have unpaved runways. Of those, 1 has a runway over 3000 meters, 7 have runways between 2500 and 3000 meters, 14 have runways between 1500 and 2500 meters, 4 have runways between 1000 and 1500 meters, and 11 have runways under 1000 meters.
Heliports
There are five heliports.
See Also
Some information in this article has been taken from the CIA World Factbook, 2003 edition.zh:阿富汗交通