GILGIT, Dec 16: Over 3,000 people who were rendered homeless by earthquakes in Astore valley recently would be settled in Thalichi Dass, 65km south of here, till a suitable area for their settlement was found, Northern Areas Home Secretary Saeed Ahmed Khan told newsmen on Friday.

He said an emergency jeep track had been paved to the Astore valley for the transportation of stranded passengers and work was in progress to remove boulders and mudslides along the Astore road.

“The landslides are so heavy that it would take some days to restore the traffic.

Meanwhile, army aviation helicopters have been transporting relief goods to the affected areas daily and removing patients to hospitals at Chilas and Jaglote,” Saeed Khan said.

He said the refugees would be kept at Thalichi for three months and they would be provided health and education facilities, for which tents and other arrangements had been made.

He said the permanent rehabilitation of the displaced people required enormous resources and it could not be accomplished without donations from other countries and non-governmental organizations.

The home secretary said teams of doctors had been constituted to look after the patients at refugee camps and in the far-flung areas of Guddai and Gorikot.