CHITRAL: No effort has been made by the government so far to take advantage of the numerous sites for winter sports such as ice skating in Chitral to attract winter tourists.

The completion of the 8.5 kilometres Lowari tunnel provides all-weather access to the district while the provincial government has also decided to develop and introduce tourist resorts in the district, but it has ignored the potential of winter tourism.

Chitral district has numerous snow-clad inclined planes in Madak Lusht, Sheshi Koh, Bumburate, Birir, Rumbur, Gobor, Garam Chashma, Karimabad, Terich, Laspur and Yarkhun for ice skating and other winter sports.

The local people said that the current year was quite ideal for holding extravaganza of ice sports as the valley had received heavy snow required for winter sports.

A local tour guide, Mujtaba Khan, said that winter sports had been quite popular in the past in some valleys of Chitral, which were abandoned later because the youth left the villages for down country in winter to seek employment there.

He said that winter tourism could be developed with a little effort on the part of government.

LEVIES DARBAR: Deputy commissioner Khurshid Alam Mehsud has said that Chitral Levies could defend the borders of the area and its jawans have been offering sacrifices in the line of duty.

Addressing Chitral Levies darbar, he said that being commandant of the force by virtue of his office, he was fully aware of their problems and would try to solve them. He said that merit would be ensured in the promotion to higher ranks in accordance with the laid down rules.

Meanwhile, Drosh-Madak Lusht road in Sheshi Koh valley was opened to light traffic on Sunday. The road had been closed after the snowfall last week.

Executive engineer of C&W department Maqbool-i-Azam told this scribe that as soon as falling of boulders from the hill stopped the snow clearance work on the road was started. He said that most of the roads leading to the remote valleys, including Bumburate, had already been opened to traffic.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2019