WANA: The newly-built 140-kilometre Wana-Gomal Zam road will provide direct access to Ahmadzai Wazir tribe of South Waziristan Agency, say officials.

They said that Frontier Works Organization (FWO) had built the road, which had enabled the commuters to cover distance between settled area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Wana, the administrative headquarters of South Waziristan in one and a half hour.

Before the construction of the new road the commuters had to travel via Mehsud area which took more than four hours. Security officials said that proper facilities had been provided to commuters at Tanai and Gardai checkposts.

They said that computerised system had been installed at checkposts for verification of documents of the passengers. Initially people commuting between Tank and Wana had to show their documents including national identity cards for verification at eight checkposts on the road.

Officials said the remaining six checkposts on Wana-Gomal Zam road would stay but commuters had been exempted from verification of documents and body search. They said other facilities had also been provided to travelers at these checkposts.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2017