Funds for the project, to be completed in three months, would be provided from the development budget, Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai said, adding the road would link his province with Oruzgan and Bamiyan.

The Kandahar's Public Works Department reckons the scheme, having a propitious effect on the economy, will offer 9,000 people employment opportunities.

Kandahar's Planning Director Mohammad Rahim Rahimi told Pajwhok Afghan News the seven-meter-wide road from the city to the Arghistan district be repaired by the end of July. Technical road workers are paid in cash and non-technical in kind.

Gul Agha Sherzai informed this scribe the route being paved and tarred would connect Kandahar with Zabul's Atghar and Shamalzai districts as well as to Spin Boldak in the south.

Residents, keenly awaiting implementation of the plan, hoped it would facilitate their travel. Thirty-year-old Sher Ahmad, hailing from Manda Kali of Arghistan district, observed: "We are very happy over the repair of this road. Once the project is completed, our crops will find better markets."

As part of the ongoing reconstruction effort, a five-year master plan was hammered out last year to develop various sectors of the economy including health, education, security and agriculture in the southern provinces.