KHAR: Local people on Sunday showed concern over delay in completion of a road project under a multi-donor trust funded programme.

Talking to reporters here, tribal elders, workers of political and religious parties, traders and transporters said due to non-completion of Shandi-Khar road under the Tribal Areas Rural to Urban Centres Conversion Initiative (TARRUCCI) had doubled the local people.

“Thousands of people traveling in buses, coaches and other vehicles daily are facing huge problems while passing the under-construction road,” Ahmed Khan, a social activist, said.

ANP’s Mohammad Noor Durani said under the programme the road project was to be completed by end of March 2015. ”We are perturbed at the slow pace of work on the road because we didn’t expect such delays in a foreign-funded project,” he added.

Political activists blamed the senior officials of TARRUCCI for the delay in completion of the scheme.

“We believe that officials of TARRUCCI who are sitting in Peshawar are responsible for the delay in completion of the scheme because they didn’t pay a single visit to the site since start of the project,” Hanif Jan, a social worker, said.

Mohammad Shafiq of PTI said the delay in completion the all important Shandi-Khar road had increased people’s misery.

The citizens also complained about use of substandard material in the road and criticised the local administration for not taking notice.

They demanded of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor to take action over the delay in completion of road project.

Meanwhile, an official of TARRUCCI told Dawn some technical problems had been causing delay in completion of the project.

However, he said the road would be completed soon as most of the works had already been done. He denied that substandard material was being used in the project.

LOADSHEDDING: The extremely hot weather with prolonged loadshedding in Ramazan has been affecting routine activities in Bajaur for the last several days, local people told Dawn.

Shopkeepers said the hot spell and prolonged loadshedding had badly affected their businesses. They said businesses which operated on electricity had come to standstill in the last several days due to excessive loadshedding. They said businesses of electronics, electrical repairing workshops and welders had been badly hit by loadshedding.

Abdur Raheem, a shopkeeper in Khar, complained about water shortage because of loadshedding in the agency.

The shopkeepers said most mosques in Khar and other areas had run out of water due to absence of electricity.

The tribesmen criticised the local administration for not taking steps to make available clean drinking water to residents. According to local people, price of ice had also been increased manifold in the local bazaars.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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