'Bridge upon a bridge', oh no, have pity on us!

Chitral -- Although a commendable and solid step has been taken by the provincial government in initiating the construction of the long overdue Chitral Bazar bypass road,  but its functionaries, due to greed and unscrupulousness are out to sabotage the plan by incorporating everything that can be wrong, in its design and execution.

A glaring example is the 'new' plan to build an additional bridge on the Chitral gole, where already an excellently built 36 ft wide bridge exists which can accommodate three trucks side by side and has raised footpaths on both sides and more importantly, the by-pass road is already aligned and meeting this bridge.

The present bridge  north-south direction: Spaciousness and free flow of vehicles can be seen.

The present bridge  south-north direction: wide (36 ft) with footpaths

Another view of the present bridge : south-north direction: wide (36 ft) with footpaths

The new brain wave of the executing authorities to spend additional Rs 50000000/- (five crore rupees) on constructing another bridge just few meters upstream of the existing bridge creating a huge ugly gorge in between the two bridges, speaks of absolute lack of accountability and the department's desperation to gobble public money, as commissions and kick backs in a bridge are to the tune of 70 percent of the cost, CN learned from experienced contractors.

Besides unnecessary wastage of money and uglifying the area,, the said bridge would pose security threat to the existing bridge also, as during floods, huge logs and boulders get entangled in the pillars of the bridge and hold up the flood water to threaten the down stream area.. In such an eventuality (God forbid), when the flow breaks out and having two bridges at such close distance would spell disaster. Even a blind and dumb man would scoff at the idea of imposing a bridge upon a bridge for the heck of it!.(or rather for the commissions of it)  --CN report Chitral 16 Oct 2011

Comment 1

If the report is true, we should stop this from happening. The concerned department is notorious for doing wrong things only keeping their own personal interests in view. With five crore rupees, the bye pass road can be further widened/extended, instead of making an unnecessary bridge. On one hand the government cries of not having enough money, but on the other hand, there is no check on wastage of the available money.-- Amanullah Khan, Chitral 17 Oct 2011.

Comment 2

Now I realise why Pakistan is so poor and its employees and its politicians so rich. Wasting government money for self interest is normal thing here and even the people are so indifferent and careless about  the abuse of government money. -- Arshad Ali, Chitral 20 Oct 2011.

---------------------------------------------------------