The record snowfall in the current winter season has wreaked havoc in Hazara division by blocking the main arteries, including Karakoram Highway and Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road, several times since last November.

Besides troubling the residents, the frequent closure of the way to the mountainous region has also caused fewer tourist arrivals.

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, the region usually witnesses nine to 10 feet snowfall but this time around, around 15 feet of snow has so far been fallen there.

The Kaghan-Babusar Top section of the MNJ Road has been closed since last Nov due to heavy snowfall with the officials seeing the road reopen at the end of the winter season in the middle of May.

According to Seth Matiullah of the Naran Hotelier Association, fewer tourists are coming to the region due to heavy snowfall and things are unlikely to improve as more snowfall is likely to happen this season.

He told Dawn that if the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road was made an all-weather artery, the tourist arrivals in the Hazara division, especially in Kaghan valley, would surge.

Seth Matiullah said tourism should flourish in northern areas of the country, especially Hazara division, to help economy grow.

The landslides triggered by snowfall caused the commuters and tourists travelling between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan and other parts of the country to remain stranded on Karakoram Highway in Kohistan and neighbouring Chelas districts for even days and nights.

Malik Saeed said he supplied eggs to shops and hotels in Kohistan and Gilgit areas and his trip usually lasted one week but this time around, it took him almost two weeks to do so due to the blockade of the Karakoram Highway at various places in Kohistan and GB.

Tourist Mohammad Jibran, who was on the way to Hunza from Rawalpindi along with family, said the deposed prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, had ordered the National Highway Authority in 2016 to make the MNJ Road an all-weather artery but that didn’t happen.

“The PTI government, which claims to be promoting tourism as one of its top priorities, is not doing enough to attract nature lovers to tourist attractions in the country,” he said.

The NHA had sought Rs8 billion funds in 2016 to turn the MNJ Road into an all-weather one.

A feasibility report compiled by the NHA then had claimed that the building and widening of glacier tunnels and embanking of sliding areas on MNJ Road were required from Kaghan to Chelas to ensure round-the-clock operation in all seasons.

It had said a 17km patch of the artery from Naran to Chelas, which became more dangerous and snowy in the winter season, could be made operational round the clock by deploying heavy machinery and human resource permanently in the winter season.

“The five big glaciers, which mostly change their placements with little distances and frequent landslides following the Oct 8, 2005, earthquake, are the main hurdle to make this important alternative to the strategically important Karakoram Highway operational for entire year but the NHA is going to prove its outclass abilities in the field,” it said.

NHA director in Hazara division Engineer Khanzada Khan expresses ignorance about the plan to make the MNJ Road operational for all weathers.

He told Dawn that the road spread over 120km was mostly snowbound and if the government wanted to make it an all-weather one, it required huge funding.

“The all-weather road requires a tunnel on Babusar Top, which I think will cost an amount almost near what was spent on the construction of the Lowari Tunnel between Dir and Chitral,” he said.

Mr Khanzada said heavy machinery and human resource would also be deployed for the proposed road in the winter season costing a lot every year.

When contacted, PML-N Senator retired General Salahudden Tirmizi, who belongs to Kaghan valley, said if the MNJ Road was made an all-weather road, the tourism potential of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would increase, businesses would flourish, and dependence on the KKH for travel between KP and GB and rest of country would widely shift to it.

He said the government should address other core issues related to the MNJ Road as the people, whose land was acquired for its widening in 1992, hadn’t got due payments.

The lawmaker said the district collector and deputy commissioner had proposed Rs1.71 billion last year for affected landowners, so the NHA should give away that money to the people, whose land had been secured for the road from Kaghan to Babusar Top.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2020