ISLAMABAD, Aug 6: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said alternative arrangements will be made to link Chitral with the rest of the country in winter to ameliorate the sufferings of the people of the district as the Lowari Pass remains closed due to snowfall for almost six months every year.

Talking to Chitral District Nazim Shahzada Mohiuddin here on Tuesday, the president said work the construction of Mastuj bridge would also be restarted to link the district with the Karakoram Highway via Shandur Pass.

The president had inaugurated the Gizar-Mastuj road widening project on Aug 28, 2001, but work on the bridge in Mastuj, about 100km north of Chitral, remained suspended as

the issue to pay compensations to the affected people was to the day not resolved.

The Nazim told Dawn that President Gen Musharraf had been taking keen interest in solving the communication problems of Chitral and had announced that work on the much- awaited eight-km-long Lowari tunnel would begin this year.

The president, while inaugurating the Kohat tunnel, had announced that the expertise used in the project would be utilized for the Lowari tunnel, which would be completed in a period of four years.

The Nazim said that tenders for the construction and widening of 20-km-long roads on either side of the Lowari Pass had been floated and after that the gigantic project could be taken up.

On the use of the Kunar-Nawa Pass route in winter, the Nazim said he had requested the president to take up the issue with the government of Afghanistan in order to reach an agreement so that a safe passage could be guaranteed for the people of Chitral to use the route in winter.

The route had been used by the Chitralis for the last ten years but was closed after the ouster of the Taliban regime.