Germany To Finance Construction Of A Tajikistan-Afghanistan Ferry Link

The German Foreign Ministry will very soon finance the setting up of a ferry boat communication linking Tajikistan and Afghanistan in the downstream of the Panj river to speed up the delivery of humanitarian cargoes to northern regions in Afghanistan. The corresponding agreement was inked in Dushanbe on Friday by the FRG Ambassador to Tajikistan Wolfgang Neuen and Yuri Brazhnikov, deputy chief of the Russian Emergencies Ministry. The project cost is some 850,000 Deutchemarks. The ferry crossing will be made up of four pontoons of at least 80-tonne cargo capacity and two tugboats, reported the German Foreign Ministry in Bonn. The FRG Foreign Ministry stressed that, during his visit to Tajikistan in late October, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer promised to render expert and financial assistance to the improvement of land communications between Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan. The setting up of the ferry crossing is an example of a humanitarian project. Earlier, the German Foreign Ministry financed the reconstruction of a bridge outside Ishkashim and earmarked 80,000 Deutchemarks for these ends, observed the German Foreign Ministry.