SWABI: The Swabi-Topi road remained blocked for over an hour because of rush of vehicles for filling compressed natural gas (CNG) at two stations in Topi city here on Wednesday.

Sources said that owners of the filling stations had entered into a verbal agreement that during power loadshedding they would not run generators and as such vehicle owners were forced to wait for resumption of power supply. Because of the traffic jam the commuters were seen walking on foot to reach Topi city, Tarbela Dam and nearby villages.

Local people said that the increasing number of vehicles queuing up on the road for filling CNG during power outage led to the traffic suspension.

The commuters demanded deployment of traffic police near the CNG stations in Topi city to control traffic and keep the road open. Mohammad Ali, a commuter, said that only traffic police could manage traffic in this area.

Another resident Jamil Ahmad said that the CNG filling stations were responsible for the entire mess.

The local people said that the road should be widened to absorb increasing rush of traffic in the area.

Meanwhile, people of Topi complained about firing in the air and open sale of drugs at an open kutcheri on Wednesday.

Deputy commissioner, Swabi, Shahid Mehmood and district police officer Imran Shahid held the open kutcheri in Topi tehsil.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Mehmood said that the district administration would use all its resources to give services to the people.

He assured the participants that their problems would be resolved on priority and urged the people to cooperate with the administration for this purpose.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2020