Afghan airfields built for war seen as economic hubs
It is a striking vision for a country torn to pieces by war and jihadi insurrection: a series of airports, built by NATO to fight the Taliban, are being handed over to the Afghan government in a civil aviation upgrade that optimists hope will fuel not only regional trade but even tourism.
The eight airfields, worth an estimated $2 billion, are scattered around a landlocked and mountainous land whose lack of rail transport or decent roads makes almost every intercity journey a perilous adventure -- even without factoring in attacks from Taliban militants.
Ex-lawmaker Mohammad Daud Sultanzoy, who is overseeing the project for the government, said the airfields -- self-contained cities that housed thousands of foreign troops who are now pulling out -- will amount to a latter-day "Silk Road" that "will connect Afghanistan internally and to South Asia and Central Asia, and beyond."
