LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), Sept 2: A row between the Khyber Agency’s political administration and the National Highway Authority (NHA) over the removal of a khasadar check-post at Takhta Baig in Jamrud is delaying the opening of a newly constructed bridge on the main Peshawar-Torkham highway.

The 154-metre bridge is the longest on the Peshawar-Torkham road. It was completed at an estimated cost of Rs50 million in one and a half years, sources in NHA told Dawn.

The construction of the bridge was undertaken in early 2004 after flood waters washed away a portion of a century-old railway cum road bridge in October 2003 at the same site. The old bridge was constructed by the British in the year 1890.

An NHA official told Dawn that the Jamrud political administration was delaying the dismantling of the Khasadar check post. The official called the check post “an encroachment over the NHA prescribed road limits” and said it should have been removed even before the new bridge was constructed.

The official said that he personally met the Jamrud assistant political agent and promised him that his department would accept all his demands. But, according to the NHA official, the assistant political agent would every now and then come up with new demands for additional rooms, verandah, bathrooms, etc.

Sources in Jamrud told Dawn that the concerned NHA official and Jamrud APA had also exchanged hot words when the APA refused to vacate the check post before the administration paid compensation or alternate facility to the khasadar force. APA Jamrud, however, denied that there were differences between his administration and the NHA and said that his administration had demanded only two rooms for the khasadar force. “We have no objection if the NHA opens the bridge,” said Amjad Ali, APA Jamrud.

The NWFP governor will inaugurate the new bridge as soon as the NHA and Jamrud political authorities reach agreement over the removal of the check post.