TAXILA: Risking their lives, hundreds of people belonging to the Choa Ghareeb Shah village of Hassanabdal have to cross the Haro river in a shabby chairlift twice a day.

The village is located about seven kilometres in the northwest of Hassanabdal city. The residents are deprived of a proper road and have to cross the river on the chairlift which they installed after purchasing scrap material by collecting donations in 2005.

It takes about half an hour to reach the village from Kachha stop on G.T. Road near the Burhan interchange. As a shortcut to the village, the villagers, especially labourers and students, use the chairlift across the river after paying Rs10 per person to the operator.

But according to technical experts, the secondhand iron cables and other parts of the chairlift have completed their service life and its continued use can be unsafe.

Haider Shah, a mechanical engineer, said the cables from which the cabin was hanging needed proper inspection and a certification by the government agency concerned.

“It is a blessing for us. Before the chairlift was installed, we could not go across the river to our workplaces,” said Mohammad Saleem, a resident of the village.

When contacted, Chaudhry Rizwan, the nazim of Union Council Jallo in which the village is situated, said due to the unavailability of a pedestrian bridge the lift had been established by the local people. He said the construction of a bridge at the site was not feasible.

In reply to a question, he admitted that the lift was installed in a shabby condition.

To another question, he said the local administration had recently sealed the chairlift but the villagers unsealed it a few days later.

When contacted, Tehsil Municipal Officer (TMO) Sajid Ali Khan said following directions from Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the wake of the Sahiwal chairlift collapse in which 34 children were injured during the Eid holidays, the lift was sealed.

However, the villagers held a protest demonstration and unsealed the chairlift.

He said a four-member committee examined the condition of the chairlift and submitted its report to the provincial authorities. He said the construction of a bridge at the site was not feasible as it would cost over Rs40 million. He said the population was not so big in the area to initiate such a mega project.

The TMO also admitted that secondhand wires had been used in the chairlift while its base was not strong enough to meet the heavy wind pressure.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2016