India won't abandon Afghan construction work

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November 23, 2005 19:56 IST

Notwithstanding the abduction and killing of a BRO driver in Afghanistan, India on Wednesday said work on the highway project where its nationals were involved was 'still in progress'.

"At the moment the work on the highway is still on," a top defence ministry official said indicating that a 'reappraisal of security arrangements for over 300 Border Roads Organisation personnel working on the project was being worked out'.

The BRO Director General Lt Gen K S Rao may go to Afghanistan to review the security umbrella for the project with Afghan authorities, he said after the body of M R Kutty was found with his throat slashed in Delaram district of Nimroz province in Southern Afghanistan.

The official made it clear that work on 'isolated points' on the highway that would link Delaram on the Makran coast in Iran with Afghan heartland of Kanadhar via Herat had been temporarily suspended pending a security reappraisal.

The official said the formation cutting of the highway of the project estimated to cost Rs 380 crore had been completed and work was in progress for surface laying.
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