LORALAI-Dera Ghazi Khan Road has been in a dilapidated condition for a long time. Its single phase from Khajori to Bowata was completed during the Musharraf-led military government but work on the second phase of the road from Loralai to Khajori via Mekhtar could not be launched despite repeated demands by the public.

The incumbent federal minister for communications, Arbab Alamgir Khan, personally inspected the road once and assured the elders of the area that it would be completed within the era of the present PPP-led government.

The tenure of the government is near completion but the road is still a symbol of the government’s apathy.

Loralai-D. G. Khan Road linking Balochistan to Punjab and Afghanistan and Central Asian states is strategically important.

All goods and cargos from Punjab and other parts of the country are shifted to Balochistan and its bordering states through this important route.

Similarly, natural resources, including coal, marbles and other minerals, are transported from Chamalang and Kasa (Loralai district) to the far-off cities of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through the same passage. Even the Sindh-bound transports use this road for transportation due to the current volatile situation prevailing in some parts of Balochistan.

During the recent torrential rains in the area the road was blocked at certain points due to landslides or inundation because of the cavities caused by floodwater. This caused heavy financial losses to growers of agriculturally rich areas.

In emergency, most of the residents of Loralai, Musakhel, Barkhan and other adjacent areas take their patients to Multan and Lahore for immediate treatment, but poor condition of the road hampers their timely arrival in the cities.

In the past there were several cases wherein patients had succumbed to their injuries or pains before reaching their destinations.

I request the federal minister for communications and the National Highway Authority to take immediate steps for the construction and completion of the most important road of the area so that the suffering of the travellers could be mitigated.

GULDAR KHAN Loralai