KOHAT, June 14: The Kohat tunnel will be opened for heavy vehicular traffic, including trucks and trailers, on the night between Sunday and Monday, officials told Dawn on Saturday.

The 1.889-km-long tunnel, inaugurated by President Gen Pervez Musharraf on June 10, has been completed with a cost of over Rs6 billion.

Group Capt Fazle Akbar, deputy manager operations of the AXS company, which will run the tunnel, informed this reporter that for the first three to four weeks, only trucks and trawlers would be allowed to pass through the tunnel to check its quality. Later, light vehicles will be allowed after the subway was declared safe.

But, he said, motorcycles and tractors would not be allowed to use the tunnel because of their slow speed.

Replying to a question, Mr Fazl said the toll tax had been fixed at Rs20 for car, Rs40 for Hiace, Rs80 for bus, Rs100 for trucks and Rs150 for trawlers. This rate, he said, had been fixed for one side only and nobody was exempted from the toll tax.—Correspondent