KABUL (SW): Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the Afghanistan-India air corridor on Monday afternoon here in Kabul.
Sediqullah Mujadidi, the head of Afghanistan-India Air Corridor project, on the occasion of the inauguration called the project as a means to boost commerce and end of road impediment between the two countries. “Previously each kilogram of goods were being charged 70 cents. With the new air corridor, each kilogram will cost 20 cents for transportation”, informed Mujadidi.
Manpreet Vohra, the Indian ambassador to Kabul, emphasized the importance of trade ties between India and Afghanistan at the inaugural ceremony of the first Afghanistan-India air corridor.
The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries also welcomes the development and called India ‘a good market’ for Afghanistan’s fresh and dry fruits.
Afghanistan heavily relies on Pakistan, the country’s largest trade partner, but frequent political and security issues between the two have severely hampered prospects for growth in bilateral trade among other areas. The two neighbors are the signatory to the Afghanistan–Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) signed in 2010 which calls for greater facilitation in the movement of goods among the two countries, but Islamabad has declined Kabul’s repeated calls to incorporate India as well. Currently, Afghan trucks are only allowed to drop their supplies at the Indian border and return empty without bringing back Indian goods, a condition lamented both by New Delhi and Kabul.
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