CHITRAL: Vehicular traffic to Upper Chitral district was restored here on Wednesday after two weeks when a makeshift steel bridge was installed over the Reshun Nullah, where a suspension bridge had been washed away by the recent flash floods triggered by torrential rains.

The commandant of Chitral Task Force inaugurated the bridge which had been fabricated and fixed by the soldiers of the Engineering battalion of the Pak Army within a span of only three days.

After formal inauguration, the long queues of vehicles stranded on both sides of the stream started moving carrying thousands of passengers and consignments of essential commodities.

The residents of Upper Chitral said that suspension of vehicular traffic had created innumerable difficulties for them. They said that several villages had since been facing shortage of food items.

With the restoration of the traffic, the Baroghil festival is likely to be held at its scheduled dates of Sept 12 and 13 in Baroghil valley bordering the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan in the extreme north.

Upper Chitral deputy commissioner Shah Saud told Dawn that the festival would be held as per the schedule after the opening of the road in Reshun.

He said that the festival was being held under the aegis of the Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which had given final touches to the arrangements of the event and guests had started arriving here.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2020