The US Department of Defense spent nearly $43 million on a gas station in northern Afghanistan and has been unable to explain why it cost so much, a US special inspector reported on Monday. The Pentagon "charged the American taxpayers $43 million for what is likely to be the world's most expensive gas station", said John Sopko, head of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a congressionally mandated body, Reuters reported. The amount was spent between 2011 and 2014 on construction and initial implementation of the station. The gas station in Sheberghan, Afghanistan, opened in 2012 and was created to show that compressed natural gas could be used in Afghanistan in cars effectively. The report found that a compressed natural gas filling station in neighboring Pakistan costs no more than $500,000 to construct. That would make the gas station in Afghanistan more than 140 times more expensive.
