Afghanistan’s Taliban administration has opened a 121-kilometre gravel road through the remote Wakhan Corridor, creating a direct overland link to the Chinese border.

The road runs from the Broghil area of Badakhshan province through the Waghjir Valley to the zero point at the Wakhjir Pass. It was inaugurated on October 4 by Rural Rehabilitation Minister Abdul Latif Mansour, who called it politically, strategically and economically important.

The project cost 365 million afghanis and was completed in two phases with domestic funding and Afghan engineers. It includes four main bridges, 66 small bridges and about 3,100 metres of retaining walls.

Kabul says the road will ease travel for isolated Wakhan and Pamir residents and could become a trade and transit corridor with China. ‘We are now directly connected to China,’ said the project’s construction chief.

Analysts caution that a fully operational commercial corridor is distant: customs facilities are missing and China keeps security concerns along the border. For India, the corridor’s proximity to Ladakh and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir adds strategic weight.