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'Caught between a rock and a hard place'

Chitralis face grave travel problems

CHITRAL 06 June 09: During the last 62 years of Pakistan, Chitralis have been facing travel problems getting out of and into Chitral from outside during the winter months but after Lowari pass opening in April-May, they would forget their winter woes and get busy with their pending chores and receiving tourists from all over the country and abroad.

This year however, the situation has been different, as due to military operations, the road to Chitral remains unavailable to commuters, leaving them the option of traveling through Afghanistan or taking the air service and now going via Gilgit over the Shandur pass ie a three times lengthier route. Traveling through Afghanistan is a risky option and only taken by the desperately needy or daredevils with nothing at stake. The other available option ie traveling by PIA is extremely unreliable due to the weather factor.

The two daily flights, one from Islamabad and Peshawar each are insufficient and frequent cancellations add to their insufficiency. Add to it the PIA has chipped off a Peshawar-Chitral flight on Saturday and given it to the Peshawar-Kabul route which operates almost empty. The seriousness of traveling problem faced by Chitralis can be gauged from the fact that the District Coordination Officer (DCO) Chitral had to take the Peshawar-Gilgit-Shandur route to reach Chitral on Saturday as the normal route was blocked due to operations and Peshawar-Chitral flight was cancelled (allotted to the Peshawar-Kabul route).

As nothing can be done about the Peshawar-Chitral land route until the ongoing security operation is over, the Govt can compensate for it by increasing the Peshawar-Chitral and Islamabad-Chitral PIA flights, or ask the private airlines to compulsorily fly on this route.  --(CN report)

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