As the drawdown of Western forces from Afghanistan draws near and despite the possibility of a resurgence of the Taliban, New Delhi is aiming to reap the maximum benefit of the reconstruction programme in that country.

According to official sources, India is currently

in discussions with Afghanistan to build a rail line from Bandar Abbas port in Western Iran, to give the much-needed infrastructural linkage for Afghanistan?s first steel plant ? the $11-billion Hajigak iron and steel project ? promoted by Indian companies in central Afghanistan.

They added that the rail line will form an important component of the $2-billion aid (approximately R11,000 crore) that India has offered to Afghanistan for building key infrastructure projects, ranging from road, power and telecom there.

In 2011, President Hamid Karzai?s government offered India a new strategic role in Afghanistan by awarding mining rights for the country?s biggest iron deposit to a group of Indian state-run and private companies. Karzai and his cabinet awarded three of four blocks at the Hajigak ore deposit to seven companies that bid with support from the government, including state-owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and NMDC, to widen the country?s strategic presence in Afghanistan, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said is essential for Indian security.

By adding a multi-billion dollar mining project to its aid programmes, India will join China as one of Afghanistan?s main foreign investors, an elevation of its role that analysts say is likely to upset its main rival, Pakistan.

Incidentally, India has already built a 218-km road, connecting Afghanistan with Chabahar Port in Iran, located in close proximity to China-managed Gwadar port in Pakistan.

Though Afghanistan sits between the oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Basin and major Asian gas consumers, and can become a strategic hub connecting Central Asia to various export routes and markets, exploration for oil and gas in the region has been hindered by years of conflict and wars, leaving the country?s energy wealth mostly untapped.

Several trans-Afghan oil and gas pipeline projects are being considered, including the TAPI pipeline project (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India). If built, it would transport Turkmen gas across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India. Afghanistan is expected to get around 8% of the gas sales revenue in transit fee.

The sources claimed that politically, India is fairly well placed in Kabul, adding that the government does not expect Kabul-Delhi equations to change after the 2014 presidential elections.

Describing Afghanistan as a traditional friend and a partner of India, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said that New Delhi views Kabul as a possible driver of Asia?s economic growth in the future. ?We do not see Afghanistan as merely a bridge or a roundabout connecting these regions, contributing only as a transit route, but as a possible driver of economic growth in the region with development of its human resources; its natural endowment including minerals and hydrocarbon resources,? he said.

It is with this long-term vision in mind that India has taken a number of initiatives starting with Strategic Partnership Agreement with Afghanistan, where focus has been on economic empowerment of Afghanistan. The measures include elimination of basic customs duties on all Afghan products, thus giving Afghanistan the benefit of preferential access to the Indian market; India?s planned investment in the Hajigak iron ore mines; the Delhi Investment Summit on Afghanistan of June 2012, and a new thrust on bilateral and regional trade and investment.