Aid workers welcome Salang tunnel reopening

Aid workers have welcomed the reopening of the strategic Salang tunnel connecting northern and southern parts of central Afghanistan, some 80 km north of the capital Kabul in the Hindu Kush mountains. Spokesman for World food Programme (WFP), Kahild Mansur told IRIN on Monday in Pakistan's capital Islamabad that the reopening would dramatically reduce traveling time between north and south of the country. "It used to take two to three days, now it takes one day to travel from Kabul in the south to Mazar-e Sahrif in the north, " he said. The Salang tunnel was officially reopened on Saturday when a Russian aid convoy passed through it. The tunnel was blown up by retreating Northern Alliance forces following the fall of the capital Kabul to the Taliban in 1996. "As most of the humanitarian aid passes through Pakistan, the reopening of the tunnel will accelerate the delivery of assistance to people in the north," he said. Salang was reopened by a group of Russian and French experts after thousands of mt of debris and some unexploded ordnance were removed from its confines. The 3.2 Km long tunnel has reopened but restoring electric lighting and ventilation to the whole tunnel will take time. At a height of some 4,000 metres above the sea level, it is the highest pass of its kind in the world.