|
Road infrastructure in deplorable condition
in Chitral
By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The recent flash floods have inflicted a colossal
damage on the road infrastructure throughout the district by
washing away 816 kilometres of roads and 42 jeepable bridges.
According to a data gathered from the office of executive engineer
of communication and works department, vehicular traffic had been
restricted within a radius of only twenty kilometers soon after the
floods. Only a few roads Chitral-Booni (75 kms), Booni-Mastuj (30
kms) and Charun-Mulkhow road (29 kms) have been partially opened
for light vehicular traffic. More than twenty valleys have been cut
off completely from the rest of the district where suspension
bridges have been washed away. The report adds that as many as ten
bridges in Yarkhun valley, two each in Gobor valley, three each in
Golain valley and Booni town have been washed away. Meanwhile, the
commodities of
 daily
consumption have run short in the distant valleys cut off from the
rest of the district and a famine is feared there. Former zilla
naib nazim Sultan Shah said that the people of Karimabad valley in
pitiable condition where people have lost their wheat crop and
fruit trees to the flood and now remain restricted to the valley.
He said that the commodities of daily consumption have ran short.
Such situation reportedly exists in all other valleys where
affected people are waiting for supply of food items. Habibur
Rahman, a resident of Andakhti Lotkoh, highly criticized the
government for its utter failure to provide basic food items to the
people of affected areas. Carrying a 3-kg container of ghee in his
hand, he told about his ordeal saying that he walked on feet for
more than five hours to reach Chitral city to purchase some items
of food. Most of the affected people are looking towards the much
trumpeted national disaster management authority (NDMA) for relief
activities.
|
::
Front Page
