GILGIT, July 20: Over 300 Chinese engineers and workers who had been taking part in the upgradation work of the Karakoram Highway have returned to China due to uncertain law and order in the Northern Areas.

Sources told Dawn that the Chinese workers had come to the region in May this year and had been involved in the widening work of the highway from the Khunjerab Pass near the Pakistan-China border down to the Thakote Bridge in Diamer.

The project with the cost of Rs30 billion was scheduled to be completed in four-year time, said the sources, adding that the work might be delayed because there were no reports about the timing of Chinese workers’ return to the region. But, the sources said, the workers had acquired land for camps in Hunza and Nagar regions where the construction work on a 335-km-long project of the Raikot-Khunjerab section of the Karakoram Highway was under way.

The sources said that another group of 137 Chinese experts involved in the monitoring work of the 18MW Naltar Hydel Project was performing their duties. They, however, had been asked to restrict their movements to urban areas, said the sources, adding that security had been beefed up at the project sites.

Meanwhile, foreign tourists in the Northern Areas were fleeing the region and the PIA office in Gilgit was providing tickets to foreigners on priority basis, the sources added.—Correspondent