MINGORA/CHITRAL: Officials of army engineering corps are making efforts to remove snow from the road to keep the Lowari Top route open to traffic.
This road is the only link connecting Chitral district with rest of the country.
According to a press release issued by ISPR Swat here on Sunday, this year the general officer commanding (GOC), Swat, has issued instructions for taking solid steps for keeping Lowari Top open.
It added that the engineering corps had moved heavy machinery to the area and started work to attain the task.
The statement said that in the past, the Lowari Top would remain closed from November to March each year. Before 2001 the residents of Chitral were using Pak-Afghan border as alternative route to reach others parts of the country, the press release said and added that after the closure of Pak-Afghan border the residents of Chitral district had been dependent on the Lowari Top.
Our Chitral correspondent reported that over 200 trucks carrying food items to Chitral had been stranded on Dir side of Lowari tunnel from the last two days as the National Highway Authority was not allowing them to Efforts underway to keep Lowari Top open pass through the tunnel.
Talking to Dawn from Lowari, Mohammad Zahir, the president of truck drivers union, said that the tunnel was opened to public transport on Saturday and Sunday as per schedule for six hours during which only passenger vehicles were allowed to pass.
He said that the trucks carrying vegetables, fruits, flour, sugar, rice, cooking oil and ghee, pulses and chicken were not allowed to pass through the tunnel.
He said that the tunnel would now be opened on the next Saturday and till then most of the commodities loaded in the trucks would decay due to snowfall. He said that this would inflict heavy losses on the traders.
He alleged that one of the trucks carrying wheat flour fell into a ravine when the driver was harassed by the NHA and during reverse his truck skidded off the road.
Meanwhile, many traders in Chitral closed down their shops because they have run out of stocks of vegetables, fruits, chicken and other daily-use commodities.
Habib Hussain, traders union president, told Dawn that he had time and again reminded the provincial government about the gravity of the problem in the aftermath of the closure of the tunnel for public transport, but no one paid heed. “I cried at the top of my voice well before the advent of winter, but the rulers did not move to devise a plan for ensuring provision of basic commodities to the people of Chitral,” he said and feared that they could face a famine-like situation.
