The highway of Kabul-Jalalabad remained closed to traffic over the past two days as major rocks slides impeded the highway in the Pul-e-Charkhi area of Kabul.
The highway crosses through a mountainous area east of Kabul that borders with Laghman.
Travelers, particularly the truck drivers, are complaining about the closure of the highway and called on the government to reopen it.
“This is very difficult for these passengers. There are corpses and patients among them, and the people are a facing severe challenge,” said Alaudin, a resident of Jalalabad.
“There are also corpses. There are patients and injured people who are going through this path. It is very difficult for them now that the mountain is sliding and it caused them a major problem,” Osman, a driver.
Footage received by TOLOnews shows there are many rockslides happening in the area, which is making it difficult to reopen the highway.
“I was standing here, and there was another person in another position. We were guiding the cars in line and whenever there was a rockslide we would stop the cars,” said Shabir, a resident of the area.
“The big trucks cannot come through this path. If it comes it will collapse. We have loaded vegetables that cost\ 1,000,000 to 15,000,000 Afs,” said Gula Khan, a driver.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense announced on social media that the engineering teams of the ministry have created a side road on the Kabul-Jalalabad highway, and now the side road is temporarily open for traffic. “It is around one kilometer, this road, which we constructed with our machines,” said Nasratullah, an official of the construction department of the MoD.
Ashraf Haqshinas, the spokesman of the Ministry of Public Works, in a video asked citizens to travel by the Leteh Band Road or the Tagab district of Kapisa due to the blockage of the Kabul-Jalalabad highway. According to Haqshinas, a mountain rock slide has not been stopped and the Kabul-Jalalabad highway is blocked three kilometers from the Kabul gate due to dirt and large stones.
This comes as another major highway of Salang, which connects Kabul to the northern provinces, is also closed due to ongoing construction.
—Tolonews
