Ministry of Finance (MoF) officials on Saturday said the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has provided government with $74 million USD for the construction of Kabul’s ring road as a long-term loan.

According to finance ministry officials, the money will be invested in the first phase of Kabul’s ring road to start from Maidan Shahar city, the capital city of Maidan Wardak province and end in Logar province.

Kabul's  four lane ring road will extend 95km and all of Kabul's neighboring provinces will be connected to this highway.

“This is one of the most important projects in the country,” Mustafa Arya, head of the donation coordination department of the finance ministry said.

Officials from the Islamic Development Bank said they are also trying to fund the solar power project in Kabul’s Naghlo area.

According to IDB officials, in addition to funding Naghlo solar power project, they want to launch an Islamic Small Loans Project and based on the project, entrepreneurs and farmers will have access to Islamic loan packages.

“In the near future we will fund many projects in Afghanistan including the solar power project in Naghlo which in the first phase will produce 30 megawatts of electricity and then will produce 100 megawatts of power and also we will launch the Islamic small loans project,” Ali Aqa, IDB deputy head said. 

Andkhoy-Aqina road up to Turkmenistan border, extension of parts of power lines of imported power from central Asia to Afghanistan and also irrigation projects in Herat’s Pashton Zarghon district are other key projects that have been implemented by the Islamic Development Bank.