PHOR (Balochistan), July 2: Two sections of the recently built Makran Coastal Highway were washed away during last week’s torrential rains, snapping the road communication between Sindh and Balochistan. The highway linking Uthal with Khuzdar and Quetta was also closed after a bridge caved in.

Not only these highways, but also the entire road network in Balochistan has been in tatters for more than a week.

The road link between Sindh and Balochistan is to some extent intact only up to Uthal, some 115 kilometres from Karachi, and Phor, 175 kilometres from Karachi, on the Coastal Highway.

According to Balochistan officials, repair work on the two highways is in progress and road traffic may be restored soon if another spell of rains and floods, forecast by the met office, does not cause any more damage.

The snapping of the road communication between the two provinces left a large number of people stranded in a vast area in Lasbela district, which had been devastated by the June 25 cyclone and the flash floods which followed. The Makran Coastal Highway was severely damaged at two places.

The 532-km highway to Gwadar starts from Zero-Point, 15kms from Uthal and about 100kms from Karachi. It was inaugurated in Dec 2004 by President Pervez Musharraf, had also been damaged by rains and floods in 2005, and the National Highway Authority had carried out a detailed survey of the entire area.

Satellite images of catchment areas and the behaviour of various structures were studied and a number of measures taken to improve the drainage system to ensure protection, in the event of another monsoon catastrophe, of what was first considered to be a marvel of road engineering.

But the protective measures, it seems, didn’t work. Its one-kilometre portion was destroyed at a place 74kms from the Zero-Point, and another portion near the Hingol culvert. Local people and those travelling on the highway were trapped at several places, including Hingol, Agor, Kund Malir, Boozy Karai, and Raas Mallan, between the damaged sections.

“We had been stranded since Monday in Kund Malir, a place near Hingol, some 145kms from Zero-Point. We did not get any food or drinking water for four days. On Friday, army helicopters supplied some light food and water,” Saeeda Baloch told this correspondent.

She was travelling by bus with her family when the cyclone hit the area. She said that she and hundreds of other people had been rescued by the army.

Anwar Iqbal, a schoolteacher from Turbat, said: “I was going to Turbat from Karachi by bus when we were caught in the storm. I was trapped in Hingol and managed somehow to reach the nearby town of Kund Malir. For four days from Monday we had no food. On Friday, we got packs of biscuits and bottled water from the army and the civil administration.”

A joint civil-army rescue and relief operation started in the area on Thursday. Lieutenant Colonel Shuja Ahmed, an army officer who supervised the rescue and relief work, said: “We rescued 474 people on Saturday alone. First we provided these people with food and drinking water with the help of two small helicopters and later we used two large helicopters to evacuate them.”

The District Coordinator Officer of Lasbela, Syed Waqar Ali Asad, said: “We have rescued hundreds of people and now only a few people are stranded. Some of them do not want to leave their place, although we have tried to persuade them to move to a safe area.”

He said the rescue operation would have to be called off at some point and nothing could be done about people who did not want to leave their place.

However, he said the administration would continue to supply food and drinking water.

He said that in the first phase of the rescue operation, the civil and army teams had given priority to people who were suffering from some disease. In the second phase, families with women and children were rescued. According to him, the rescue work would be completed by Monday.

Anwar Sipah and his family and the families of his brothers were rescued from Hingol by army helicopters. They were dropped in Phor so that they could proceed by road to Karachi.

Talking to this correspondent, Anwar Sipah said: “We were going by bus to Gwadar to see our relatives. Torrential rainfall and gusty winds hit us when we were in Hingol. Our bus could not move and we were trapped there. There was no food or drinking water. We were there for five days after which we were airlifted.”

The District Police Officer (DPO) of Lasbela, Ghulam Ali Lashari, said that two of the 43 Hindu pilgrims who had come to Hanglaaj Maata, 15 kilometres from Agor, died while 41 others were rescued.

A senior official of the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), who didn’t want to be named, said: “The National Highway Authority has asked us to rebuild the damaged portions and we have started work here. We hope this portion at Phor will be ready for vehicular traffic very soon and then we will move forward to build the other damaged portion.”

He said apart from two major portions which had been badly damaged, other parts of the highway had also been affected and would be repaired soon. However, he had no answer when asked what would happen to the repairs in the event of more torrential rains, as predicted by the met office, hitting the area.

The road to Khuzdar and Quetta via Uthal was damaged near Bela after the Porali bridge was damaged and traffic from Karachi to Quetta and Gwadar was suspended.

BUS OPERATORS’ COMPLAINT: Inter-city bus operators at the terminal on Hub River Road complained that they were unaware about the road repair schedule. “Our business is finished. We cannot go beyond Uthal. Passengers are asking us when the bus service would resume, but the Balochistan authorities are not cooperating with us,” said Murad Jaan, who runs 14 buses on the sector.