Hairatan

Province

Hairatan (Persian حیرتان, Hairatan DMG ) is a border town and port in the north of the province of Balkh, Afghanistan. It is situated at 300 m altitude on the south bank of the Amu Darya River, which forms the border between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Opened on 12 May 1982 bridge of friendship Afghanistan -Uzbekistan, a combined rail and road bridge that links with the Uzbek city of Termez Hairatan. Hairatan developed in recent years to become one of the most important trading centers in Afghanistan.

History

Early 1990s was Hairatan the location of the 70th Division of General Abdul Momen, who was loosely affiliated with Abdul Rashid Dostum's militia "National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan ". After Momen was killed on 5 January 1994 with a reactive anti-tank rifle, his Division disintegrated.

After the end of Taliban rule and the inauguration of the pro-Western President Hamid Karzai in December 2001 Hairatan developed for the new government to a place of great strategic importance. The new, trained by NATO Afghan Security Forces ( ANSF ) taught here a military bases to ensure the safety for border activities; while the Afghan Border Police ( ABP) to protect the border itself, while the Afghan Customs Administration regulates and monitors trade in goods. They are supported by the Afghan National Army and the international ISAF forces.

Traffic

The freight station Hairatan is the endpoint of a ten -kilometer railway line from the Uzbek Termez and wrapped in 2011, about half of Afghanistan's imports from. On the part of Uzbekistan it was closed for political reasons from 1996 to 2001. Since then operate on her again trains. The extension to the Afghan city of Mazar -i - Sharif airport, 75 km away, opened in late 2010, after ten months of construction and officially opened on February 3, 2012.

The Hairatan Road is a 55 km long road that connects Hairatan with the Afghan Ring Road. This is achieved after a further 27 km Mazar -i -Sharif.