Whenever he is setting off on Neelah Road, Iftikhar Ahmed begins to pray for his safety. The road, riddled with potholes, has not been carpeted since its construction some three decades ago. “When riding on the bus the fear of an accident overcomes me and other passengers. This fear haunts us throughout the journey,” says Iftikhar Ahmed.

He is a resident of Neelah village located some 43 kilometres to the northern-west of Chakwal city. The road connects more than two dozen villages with Chakwal city.

As many as fifty passenger vans including 23 from Neelah village alone ply on this road each day. The constant neglect and apathy by the local politicians and rulers has left the road in an utter shambles.

“We have to take my vehicle to mechanics daily due to the pathetic condition of the road,” moans Nazeer Sadiq a driver who runs a bus from Neelah to Chakwal.

“Road accidents have become common as due to this rundown road the vehicle can get out of control anytime,” he said.

The miserable plight of the road has not only become a threat to commuters’ lives but it also costs drivers as they have to spend half of their daily earnings on the maintenance of their vehicles.

MPA Sardar Zulifqar Ali Khan from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz also hails from Dulah, the village next to Neelah but has hardly done anything practical to get the road repaired. People do say that whenever they lodge a complaint with him he simply assures them that the road will be repaired soon but so far nothing has happened.

According to the rules every road is designed for ten years and it must be repaired on an annual basis but in Punjab the Shahbaz Sharif government, which is spending billions of rupees on mega projects such as metro bus, ring roads and flyovers in Central Punjab or in Rawalpindi, hardly pays attention to the repair of roads in remote districts like Chakwal and Jehlum which are worsening day by day.

In Chakwal district the total length of link-roads which connect villages to tehsil headquarters and district headquarters is 2,223 kilometres and these roads fall in the jurisdiction of District Road Department while 500-km road network is in the domain of the Provincial Highways Department.

“The entire road network in Chakwal district badly needs to be revived and for this billions of rupees are needed,” says an official, on the condition of anonymity.

“According to rules and regulations every road must be repaired on annual basis,” he said adding that the approved cost for one kilometre of road repair is Rs125,000.

But for the last one decade not a single penny has been spent on the roads for lack of funds,” the official adds.

“The broken roads put us at great risk,” says Raja Khalid, a resident of Kaliyal Village located some 25km away to the east of Chakwal City. This road which connects more than twenty villages to Chakwal City has been lying in a shambles for the last 25 years.

The same case is with roads leading to Khanwal Village located 30km on the northern west side of Chakwal City.

“The politicians only visit us during elections and make big promises but when elections are over they never come,” says Tariq Murtaza Hashmi, a resident of Khanwal Village.

The roads leading to the remote villages of Talagang, Choa Saidan Shah and Kallar Kahar are also in a poor condition.

There are also some roads which have not been repaired for the last thirty years.

In Jhelum District there is a road network of 1276km. The roads which pass through hilly terrain have become a death trap for the travellers. The road from Aara Village (some 50km away from Chakwal City) located in the scenic hilly terrain of Salt Range to Rawal Village, connecting Chakwal and Jhelum, could not get the attention of the rulers for the last thirty years.

Rains have damaged the roads in many places. One cannot find gravel on this road as it has been swept away by the rains. People of the area have stopped using this road, which has now become a resting place for cows. “To travel on a vehicle is highly dangerous on this road due to its poor condition that’s why we are forced to use Pind Dadan Khan Road whenever we have to go to Chakwal,” moans Mohammad Aslam, a resident of Rawal Village located in Pind Dadan Khan Tehsil of Jhelum.

“The Punjab government has allocated Rs31.560billion for road networks in 2014-15 budget but with this amount only new road schemes were launched and the existing roads which connect villages to the cities are ignored,” says an official.

“I feel pain when I see the conditions of roads but I’m helpless as I could not do anything,” regrets an official in the Road Department.

According to officials Rs400m are required for repairing existing roads while a hefty amount is needed to reconstruct these roads in Chakwal and Jhelum.

Talking to Dawn MPA Sardar Zulifqar Ali claimed that the project of reconstructing Neelah Road has been approved at a cost of Rs504.719m and the work on the road would begin soon.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2014