KOHAT: One side of the new Kohat-Hangu dual highway, which is also being used for Afghan Transit Trade (ATT), has sunk low partly due to alleged corruption in its construction and partly because of plying of vehicles carrying load beyond the allowed weight limit.

The patchwork for levelling of 16 kilometres portion of phase-I – made for the transportation of goods – is being started from Mohammadzai village. Officials of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority fear that after repair the road may sink again if overweight 22-wheeler trucks were not stopped from using it.

MPA Ziaullah Bangash during a visit to the site also asked the KPHA officials to ensure removal of the faults.

When contacted, KPHA assistant director Shakir Pervez, who is supervising the whole project of 40km dual highway, told Dawn on Friday that allegations of corruption in the project were totally baseless. He said that the first phase of the project had been completed while construction of the second phase of the 32km highway would be started within a month with an estimated cost of Rs700 million.

Mr Pervez blamed the Afghan Transit Trade business for the damage done to the road, saying that trucks with 120 tons load had been plying on the road instead of the permitted 60 tons. He said that there was no check on the violation due to unavailability of weight checking point.

He said that he had written many times to the authorities to install the weight measuring point on the highway, but the facility had not been provided. He said that he had also made a request to the quarters concerned to send a mobile weight station for calculating weight of the trucks, but it was still awaited. He said that trucks as high as 10 feet were using the highway, which caused hammering by the rear tyres and damaged the road.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2015

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