The Sutlej River has effectively created a 20 to 25km-long inland lake between Gilani Road and the M5 motorway, submerging and damaging the highway along its entire length in the area.

A district administration official, speaking to Dawn on condition of anonymity, revealed that the scale of the damage might have been mitigated by a difficult decision.

“It would have been better to make a controlled breach on the motorway to pass the Sutlej River water into the Chenab, but the decision was not taken in time,” the official stated.