DUSHANBE, January 25, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Implementation of project for construction of alternate highway connecting Tajikistan and Pakistan will start after coordination of this issue with Afghanistan, because this highway will go across the Afghan territory, Minister of Transport and Communications Olimjon Boboyev told reporters in Dushanbe today.

According to him, Tajikistan and Pakistan signed an agreement on construction of this highway at the end of last year.

“The project provides for construction of the highway connecting Tajikistan and Pakistan via Afghan Badakhshan Province,” said the minister, “A tunnel will be built in Pakistan, some 110 kilometers from Tajikistan’s border (Ishkashim district in Gorno Badakhshan).”  It will be necessary to build 17 kilometers of this highway on the territory of Tajikistan, he added.

Boboyev noted that the project would allow halving the distance between Tajikistan and Pakistani seaports.  The Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan highway construction project is being developed by the Pakistani side, he noted.