Knowledgeable sources here believe India has a strong case for the Haji Gak bid. If it wins the deal, Sail proposes an integrated steel plant with coal from Darai Suf, which is not too distant.
Speaking to this correspondent here last year, Afghanistan’s minister for mines Wahidullah Shahrani, who also coordinates Afghanistan’s infrastructure hub, had expressed worries on account of how India proposed to take out the minerals, given its relations with Pakistan and the US frowning on economic activities involving Iran. Ways are now available round that anticipated difficulty, Indian sources point out.
The proposed Chinese railway link between Ainak and Balkh in the north can be joined with a relatively short-stretch railway that India is ready to construct between Haji Gak and the nearest point on the Chinese-built railway. This opens potential evacuation of the iron ore through Uzbekistan.
A slurry pipeline out of Afghanistan is also technically conceivable in the event that the ore content is not as high as imagined. This would require substantial amounts of water, which is available in the area. The Chinese are planning a second railway track connecting Ainak with the Torkham border post with Pakistan, not far from Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Afghanistan has recently signed a one-way transit treaty for its goods through Pakistan. If Pakistan wishes to earn revenues from transit duties for the iron ore in the event of India bagging the Haji Gak project, it will be setting an excellent example for regional cooperation.
India is understood to be prepared to approach Islamabad in this connection. A recent meeting of the trade ministers of the two countries is seen as a good augury, although any realisation of potential can be said to be a good way off.

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Water mars orissa flood relief
Age correspondent
Bhubaneswar, Sept. 18

Stagnation of water in the flood-hit pockets of Orissa has severely hit relief operation and created serious health and hygiene problem.
Hundreds of villages in Puri, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Boudh, Sonepur, Cuttack and Sambalpur districts still remain marooned due to absence of drainage facilities. Relief teams could not reach most of the affected people as major roads, which were washed away in the flood, are repaired.
Heavy rains also affected the mobility of the medical teams and voluntary organisations. Reports from interior pockets suggested that a good number children an old people were down with diseases like fever and cold. Cattle feed has not adequately been supplied.
As the situation worsened, chief minister Naveen Patnaik talked to the collectors of the 19 flood-hit districts through video-conferencing and asked them to supply free food to the affected people for seven more days. Speaking to reporters after the chief minister’s interaction with the collectors, chief secretary B.K. Patnaik said the collectors had been asked complete the house damage enumeration by September 20 and pay compensation by October 5. “We have asked the collectors to complete the assessment by September 20. They have been instructed to engage adequate number of personnel, including retired revenue inspectors, in the house damage enumeration and submit the report as early possible,” the chief secretary said.