LANDI KOTAL: Miscalculation about the rock structure by the consultant agency caused delay in completion of 47-kilometre Peshawar-Torkham Highway for an indefinite period, officials said.

Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), which was assigned the task to complete the road in two years, had vowed in February last to build the road till Landi Kotal, seven kilometres short of Torkham border, by the end of this year. 

The target set by FWO now seems impossible as the expansion and rebuilding of the road have been completed only till Ali Masjid, which is about 12 kilometres short of Landi Kotal. 

“Cutting of rocks at Ali Masjid has seriously hampered our onward progress as these rocks proved to be tougher than we anticipated,” Maj Haseenullah, FWO spokesman, told Dawn at his Jamrud camp office.

He said that the consultant company NESPAK, who conducted the survey before the start of road construction had initially thought that the rock was of soft nature and it would not require much time and use of heavy cutting machinery or heavy explosives. 

“We now rely on use of heavy machinery to crush the hard rock for road expansion as heavy explosives could also cause damage to the houses built on both sides of the road,” the official said. He added that use of machines was causing delay in achieving their target.

National Highway Authority had in November 2012 announced after the inauguration of $70 million project by the then president Asif Ali Zardari that the road would be completed in two years.

The consultant agency fails to understand the nature of rock at Ali Masjid

“We are now trying our level best to touch Charwazgai, the boundary line of Landi Kotal town in next two months and then will proceed to the Torkhum border,” Maj Haseen said.

He was, however, reluctant to give a final date for the completion of the entire project and instead insisted that all their manpower and machinery would be put at work in the last phase of Torkham road once they reached Landi Kotal.

FWO had in the beginning also pledged that it would not compromise on the 42 feet width of the road at any cost.

But it virtually surrendered to Frontier Corps, which refused to demolish its installations at Ali Masjid, built to protect the natural water course.

Maj Haseen said that his organisation was more keen to save the natural water course instead of widening the road at Ali Masjid as the water course was one of the major source of clean drinking water to the population of Landi Kotal tehsil.

Tribal elders, leaders of various political parties and transporters have expressed their serious reservations about the delay in timely completion of the project.

They also expressed dissatisfaction over the FWO abandoning of its plan of constructing all the 14 bridges, which were part of the original project approved by NHA and the finances pledged by the US government.

FWO now says that only six out of the total 14 bridges would be constructed as the money was diverted for construction of retaining walls and drains along the road. 

The official, however, insisted that two bridges were already completed while the one at Katta Khushtha would be opened to traffic in a moth. Three more bridges near Prang Sam and Wali Khel would be completed in about three to four months time, he said.

The tribesmen have also expressed concern over the ‘storm of dust’ which has engulfed most parts of Landi Kotal owing to construction of the road.

Published in Dawn December 22th , 2014