PM Narendra Modi Inaugurates Afghan-India Friendship Dam On His First Day Of Five-Nation Tour

On Saturday, the Prime Minister of India embarked on a five-nation tour. On his tour, he is supposed to visit Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

His journey began today and he paid his first visit to Afghanistan. This is for the first time Afghanistan welcomed a head of government in their country. Narendra Modi, along with the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the masterpiece Afghan-India Friendship Dam (also known as the Salma Dam) in the strategically important province of Herat.

The dam is being viewed as India’s commitment to reconstruction of the war-ravaged Afghanistan. The Rs 1,700 crore project is India’s most expensive infrastructure in the region. It is expected to generate 42 Megawatt of electricity for irrigation of around 75,000 hectares of land.

The project was estimated to cost $75 million when the work began in 2006, during the UPA-I government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He told that it will be finished by 2012, but owing internal strifes in Afghanistan and problems posed by the Talibans, it took so long.

It is one of the very few things for Afghanistan to feel happy about, seeing the condition of the war-torn nation. The dam is likely to strengthen harmony between India and Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Modi is also supposed to hold talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the current situation in the country and the peace process besides other bilateral and regional issues.

Concluding his Afghanistan tour, he will be visiting Qatar.