Marking the completion of a landmark Afghan development project, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam during his visit to Afghanistan this weekend, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Thursday.
“Prime Minister and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will jointly inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam on June 4, Saturday, in Herat province. The completion of the dam project represents the culmination of work by 1500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in very difficult conditions,” MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
The Afghan-India Friendship Dam will irrigate 75,000 hectares of farmland in arid parts of western Afghanistan.
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Originally constructed in 1976, the reservoir was damaged in the Afghanistan civil war.
The Afghanistan government in 2015 changed the name of the project from Salma dam to Afghan-India Friendship Dam.