CHITRAL: A picture of a portion of the under-construction Chitral-Shandur Road at Mori Lasht village, under the package-I of the project, has gone viral on the social media which shows a sharp turn in the road despite the availability of flat land for a straighter path.

The post has sparked a barrage of criticism on social media platforms, where users have strongly criticised the engineer and experts of the National Highway Authority (NHA), calling the road design highly flawed.

The social media users expressed their grave concerns about potential fatal accidents, including head-on collisions and vehicles skidding off into the river below due to the road design error.

Talking to local journalists at Chitral Press Club, the head of a local NGO said that the picture clearly showed the technical shortcomings of the agency responisble for the road project connecting Chitral with Gilgit-Baltistan. He added that the road was full of numerous design and survey errors.

The NHA project director didn’t respond to repeated call from Dawn for comment on the issue.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2024