Thursday, February 24 2005 15:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Giving a new impetus to bilateral ties, India and Afghanistan today (Feb 24, 2005) signed two accords on enhancing cooperation in civil aviation and media and information as New Delhi renewed its commitment to assist in the rebuilding of the war-ravaged country.

The documents were signed in the presence of visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi after the two leaders held wide-ranging discussions on important bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual concern.

The Memorandum on cooperation in the field of civil aviation signed by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Afghan Transport Minister Enayatullah Qasemi is aimed at building capacity and strengthening institutional structure of Afghanistan's civil aviation sector.

This would include training in areas of airport management, air traffic control, navigational aids etc, including safety and maintenance of aircraft.

India has gifted three airbus with essential spare parts to the Ariana Afghan Airlines at a cost of $ 13.7 million. The first two aircraft were handed over in September and December 2002 and the third aircraft in March 2003.

Air India has also trained over 50 officials of Ariana Afghan Airlines.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of media and information calls for greater interaction between the mediapersons and radio and television organisations of the two countries.

The MoU was signed by Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy and the Afghan Information and Culture Minister Sayed Makhdum Rahin.

Under its assistance programme, India has completed work on TV satellite uplink at Kabul and downlink at ten provincial capitals in Afghanistan involving a cost of $ 4.9 million in October 2004. These are already operational.

Work is underway for establishing a new 100 KW SW transmitter and setting up a TV studio in Jalalabad along with transmission facilities in Nangarhar province.

India will be taking up the next phase of augmentation of TV coverage through additional satellite uplinks and downlinks.

For improving printing facilities, India has set up a modern offset printing machine along with DTP facility in the Azadi Press in Kabul.

A total commitment of $ 400 million has been made by India as assistance to Afghanistan since 2002. As part of this, India has committed $ 84 million for the upgradation and reconstruction of the Zaranj-Delaram road.

India has also committed $ 80 million for the execution of the Salma Dam power project in Herat province. Engineers from India have commenced work on the project.

As part of its assistance, India has also decided to fund the construction of a new Parliament building in Afghanistan. Indian engineers along with Afghan engineers have carried out preliminary discussions about the layout and design.