Zaranj

Zaranj, Afghanistan
Country	Afghanistan
Province	Nimruz
Time zone	GMT+04:30 Kabul

Zaranj is a city in south-western Afghanistan, with a population of approximately 70,000 people. It is the capital of Nimruz province and is situated right next to Iran's eastern border. It is linked by highways with Lashkar Gah to the east, Farah to the north and Zabol in Iran to the west. Zaranj is of significant importance to the trade-route between Asia and the Middle East. The population of the area are ethnic Pashtun and Baloch people.

History

File:Pakistan ethnic 80.jpg

Major ethnic groups of the region. Green represents Pashtun people and pink represents Baloch people.

Zaranj is an ancient historic city which was known as "SARANG" in Sanskrit during Hindu times and later came to be known as ZARANG and now Zaranj.

A new highway is being built between Zaranj and Delaram by the Indian Government's Border Roads Organization at a cost of about US$80 Millions (expected to go up to a quarter billion due to security concerns) to open up a deep sea port (From Iranian Cha Bahar Port) access to Afghanistan from its main Highway system ringing Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz.

The province has been one of the 7 (Nimruz, Helmand, Kandahar, Oruzgan, Ghazni, Paktika and Zabul) where the Taliban have been recently regrouping.

Due to its proximity to Iran, beautiful Iranian artifacts and carpets or other merchandise are available in Zaranj.

There is no airport in Zaranj worth the name. However, UN and PACTEC flights sometimes (Irregularly) land on a dirt strip there during fair weather.

See also

• Afghanistan
• International Security Assistance Force
• Provincial Reconstruction Team
• NATO

External links

30°58′N 61°53′E