18 October 2004	Monday	03 Ramazan 1425

MITHI, Oct 17: The people of Tharparkar have urged the highway authorities to repair the Naokot-Mithi Road which has been in bad shape for past many months.

In an appeal, they said the road was causing a lot of inconvenience to commuters and motorists owing to accumulation of sand and crushed stone for the past couple of months.

The 50km-long Mithi-Naokot Road was constructed years ago on experimental basis by merely using bitumen and sand without flattening the high dunes. Some time ago, the highway department engaged contractors to turn the single track into dual carriageway. The work on the project started a couple of months back but the road was still narrow at various points due to accumulation of sand.

Another factor which has made the crossing of vehicles difficult is the flattening of sand dunes without proper planning which caused creation of deep trenches at various spots. Almost on daily basis trucks are seen stuck at these places, causing traffic jams for long hours.

Recently some fatal accidents have also occurred at this road due to its poor condition but the authorities concerned have not bothered to carry out its re-carpeting.

POLICE CHECKPOINT: Police personnel posted at the Naokot fort checkpoint have raised cemented structures at the place which is causing a hurdle in the smooth flow of traffic.

It is observed that buses and coaches take at least 10 minutes to pass through these structures.

Passengers maintain that there is no need to construct such structures at a police checkpoint and they only annoy travellers. They urged the district nazim and the DPO to take remedial measures.