Passengers dedicate 18 hours perilous journey to NHA

CHITRAL 09 April 10. National Highway Authority mismanagement on the Lowari is putting to peril the lives of travelers, not to talk of the immense torture they undergo when trying to travel on the 'opened' Lowari pass road.

On Thursday 08 April, four coasters full of passengers including a dozen women and children left Islamabad for Chitral. On reaching the tunnel at 2pm they were told that the tunnel has been closed and they should travel over the pass. When a serving army captain travelling in the bus approached the Korean rep Mr Kin there,  he told him that they had no objection of vehicles travelling through the tunnel as no work was going on inside, but the NHA has stopped the usage of the tunnel for reasons best known to them.

The four coasters along with a dozen more small and large passenger vehicles, per force started driving up the Lowari pass. To the horror of the passengers and the drivers the road had not been cleared. Only superficially snow had been pushed here and there and the rest was left to 'akhpul bandubast' by the travelers. The vehicles soon started getting stuck and the ordeal began. Passengers of all vehicles getting down every few hundred meters and literally lifting the stuck vehicle out of snow and pushing them on. Even four wheel drive vehicles were getting stuck due to the road not being cleared. One coaster almost overturned due to a hidden hole in the road under the snow. This NHA tango continued for nine hours on the Lowari pass with women and children weeping and wailing loudly cursing the NHA who has declared the road open.

Passengers on arrival at Chitral dedicated their 18 hours of torturous and perilous journey to the NHA. After disembarking at Chitral at 1 pm past midnight, all passengers gathered together and raised slogans of 'NHA Murdabad' and 'Shame on corrupt NHA',  before dispersing. --(CN report)