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MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AN important measure taken in the field of communications during the third year of the Plan was the agreement for the installation of a 1,500 line telephone service for the city of Kandahar. According to the Agreement, signed with a Czechoslovakian company, the equipment necessary for this service will arrive in Afghanistan within fifteen months. Another important step was the installation of exchanges and new lines throughout the country. In this connection, eleven new exchanges have been installed in the capital and the provinces—such as in Lashkargah, Kandahar; Sher Shah Maina, Kabul; Herat and Parwan. Among the switchboards set up elsewhere in the country can be mentioned those at Badakhshan, Shibirghan, Chahar Burjak, Farah, Chakhansaur, Nangarhar, Pul-i-charkhi, Kabul and the Pactya Province. Lines amounting to about 200 kilometres in all have been extended during the year in Akcha, Guldar, Saighan, Moosa Khel and Shokhi; while the telephone service between Mazar-i-Sharif and Maimana has been doubled. The new channel system units purchased for telephone and telegraphic purposes between Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, and between Kabul and Spin Boldak, from the Siemens Company have arrived in Kabul. When these are installed it will be possible to carry four telephonic and six telegraphic communications on each pair of wires. As this new service cannot for technical reasons be operated on the present steel wires the Ministry has had to obtain new equipment, including copper wires, for use in the new channel system. 5,000 metal poles with all accessories such as brackets and insulators and 270 tons of copper wire have been purchased and imported from the Soviet Union, and improvement work began on the Kabul—Kandahar line in September, 1958. The work completed on the Kabul—Spin Boldak line through Kandahar is as follows: i. The channel system line between Kabul and Ghazni has been renewed to a total length of 80 kilometres. ii. The Ghazni—Gardez—Mukur line has been renewed to a length of 30 kilometres. iii. The Mukur—Kalat line has been renewed to a length of 40 kilometres. iv. The line between Kalat and Kandahar has been renewed to a length of 40 kilometres. v. The Kandahar—Spin Boldak line has been renewed to a length of 55 kilometres. It is hoped that the work on the whole project will be finished by March, 1960, when the channel system will officially come into operation. A new agreement has been signed with the Soviet Union for the purchase of 5,500 poles (with accessories) to be used in the renewal and improvement of the channel system line between Kandahar and Herat. The price of these is estimated at 300,000 dollars. A specialist from the International Telecommunications Organisation has been invited by the Ministry to give advice on the improvement of channel system services in Afghanistan; and on the basis of the report he presented to the Ministry, arrangements are now under way for the purchase of necessary equipment for the extension of the channel system between Kandahar and Islam Kala through Herat. This project will require approximately 60 tons 79