ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: People in Chitral have criticized the government for delaying the induction of new "all-weather" aircraft on the Peshawar-Chitral route.

When the Lowari Pass route is closed to traffic after a heavy snowfall, Fokker flights from Peshawar become the district's only link with other parts of the country. As the flights are too erratic and dependent on weather people use the Nawa Pass route via Kunar province of Afghanistan at the risk of getting killed and robbed to travel to and from other parts of the country.

They also slammed the government for not making alternative arrangements to solve the transport problems of the valley and urged the federal government to allocate special funds for the purpose until the completion of the Lowari tunnel project.

The PIA had announced that it would induct seven 50-seater turboprop aircraft to replace the old Fokker F-27 planes during the year 2004-05. PIA's board of directors had formed a committee to prepar a report on the selection of aircraft by the end of March 2004.

The national carrier has been delaying the induction of the new aircraft despite putting a few of them on trial flights. Officials say the proposed aircraft will be best suited for mountainous areas where the Fokker-27 planes could not operate even in slightly inclement weather.

Almost 70 per cent of weather-related flight delays will be overcome if the turboprop aircraft are operated on routes to the Northern Areas and Chitral, they maintain.