ISLAMABAD, March 4: Residents of the Mastuj and Yarkhun union councils in Chitral have urged the government to release funds for the construction of an all-weather road linking the upper and lower parts of the district.

Talking to Dawn on phone from Choinj on Monday, Muttahida Awami Ittehad Mastuj president Maulaiddin Shah Hashmi said that people of the two union councils had completed work on a seven-kilometre road on a self-help basis and also built a temporary wooden bridge on the Yarkhun River in front of the Mastuj village.

However, he said the wooden bridge would be washed away with the increase in the river level in the summer season and the money and hard work put in by the area people would go waste if funds were not released for the construction of the bridge and maintenance of the newly-constructed road.

Mr Hashmi said the road was part of a project announced by President Pervez Musharraf about four years ago to link Northern Areas and Chitral via the Shandur Pass. He said the government had sanctioned Rs60 million for the 7km road and the bridge, but the project was abandoned after the completion of over 80 per cent work at a cost of Rs10.7 million.

When the area people went on a hunger strike last year to press for the resumption of work, MNA Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali and the area MPA along with the tehsil nazim had promised that they would take up the matter with higher authorities.

They had also announced an amount of about Rs15 million from their discretionary funds to resume the work. However, the promises were not fulfilled, Mr Hashmi said. Fed up with hollow promises, Mr Hashmi added, the area people began work on the project on a self-help basis and completed it. The route was opened for traffic on Feb 25.

Mr Hashmi appealed to President Musharraf and the NWFP government to allocate funds from the development package announced for the district to overcome the communication problem in the far-flung areas.