The Taliban promise to complete a mega urban development project in Kabul to house three million people

MADRID, 7 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Taliban Ministry of Urban Development and Lands (MUDL) has announced its intention to complete the so-called "New Kabul Project", a program designed to house three and a half million people.

The acting head of the portfolio, Hamdulá Nomani, explained this past Saturday that the project includes 540 low-cost housing initiatives that citizens will be able to assume "thanks to loans", according to a press conference collected by Tolo News.

The project, stalled for years, aimed to create more than a million jobs and provide a high-quality environment for key industries, education, employment, commerce and a wide spectrum of other socio-economic activities in three phases to be completed in 2040, indicates 'The Diplomat'.

The intention is to build 600,000 houses in Dehsabz and Barikab to the northeast of the current city of Kabul, covering 722 square kilometers of urban area and 440 square kilometers of developable land in Kabul and Parwan provinces.

This initiative is dedicated in part to the millions of internally displaced persons that the capital hosts from impoverished rural communities. However, the minister has stated that the Taliban will also initiate development projects outside of large urban areas.

"It will include the construction of clinics, schools, universities and mosques are included as main parts, to continue with the construction of government institutions such as departments of the ministries in the provinces," he said.

"Any displaced person can contact us or the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation to fill out documents and receive a residence," he added.

In contrast, the NGO of the Norwegian Council for Refugees denounced at the end of June a pressure campaign by the Taliban to return the displaced to their places of origin.

The CNR fears that up to half a million families in Afghanistan now face the prospect of homelessness "due to mounting pressure from the authorities."

Decades of conflict, drought, political instability and economic collapse have driven displaced Afghans into enclaves around larger cities that, over time, "have become slums," according to the NGO.

Despite the precarious living conditions, these areas end up providing shelter and access to humanitarian assistance to some of the most vulnerable populations in Afghanistan, including internally displaced persons and returning refugees, according to the NGO.