Page 55

A bird's-eye view of the Gulbahar Textile Mills, which will go into full operation next year 100 kWh. power at Farah may be mentioned. The Gulbahar steam-generated power plant (2,800 kWh.) is also well under way. TEXTILE PROJECTS Fabrics and clothes constitute the biggest import items for Afghanistan, using up vast sums in foreign currency. Textile projects, therefore, enjoy a certain amount of priority in the Plan. 1. Gulbahar Textile Plant It is the biggest factory in Afghanistan, consisting of 47,000 spindles and 1,422 automatic weaving machines with sections for white, coloureds, prints and waste products. The construction work has been going on for several years now. During last year the entire spinning section and a part of the weaving machines were installed and began trial operation. Other sections are also com- pleted in the neighbourhood of 70-90%. It is expected that the factory will go into full production in the next fiscal year. 2. The Umeed Rayon Plant This plant, consisting of 40 automatic weaving machines and producing up to 650,000 metres of rayon annually, began operations in January. 3. The Kandahar Woollen Textile Plant A new project is in hand which will, with the co-operation of a Polish organisa- tion, enhance the quality and increase production of the present factory at Kandahar. New machinery for its expan- sion is already being installed. CEMENT With no cement factory, Afghanistan was facing a rather grave problem by an annual expenditure of her hard-earned 52