Chief of the Army Staff (CoAS) General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday inaugurated the Bannu-Miran Shah-Ghulam Khan road. The American Embassy congratulated the people of Pakistan, the FATA Secretariat and the Frontier Works Organisation on the opening of Bannu-Miran Shah-Ghulam Khan.
The United States is proud to have partnered with the Pakistani government to restore key trade routes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to statement issued by US Consulate General Peshawar on Wednesday. The Bannu-Miran Shah-Ghulam Khan road was constructed with 8.7 billion rupees of funding from the United States Government through the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The 82 kilometer road, which is one of the four major cross-border trade routes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, facilitates access from Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province to Miran Shah in North Waziristan Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and onwards to Ghulam Khan, which borders Afghanistan.
"This road symbolises and is a benefit of the partnership between Pakistan and America. Together, we are helping to fulfil the Pakistani goal of restoring public infrastructure in remote communities... To date, America has funded the construction and rehabilitation of over 1100 kilometers of roads in Pakistan, through similar gifts... These partnerships demonstrate our long-term commitment to Pakistan's people, prosperity, and stability," said American Ambassador David Hale in a video message for the event. USAID partnered with the FATA Secretariat and the Frontier Works Organisation to complete the road.