Repair work of Airport road finally launched

CHITRAL: The Communication and Works Department (C&W) has initiated repair work on Chitral Airport Road after the issue was highlighted in the media. Garam Chashma Road was damaged badly due to overflowing water and it was causing problems for commuters and transporters. The water flow on the road was also causing soil erosion and the situation was going from bad to worse. The issue was highlighted by this scribe after which the C&W finally came into action and started repair work on the road by stopping the flow of water in the first step.

The C&W Executive Engineer Usman Yousaf Shinwari has handed over the repair work of the road to a contractor. Khalid Bashir, a sub-engineer in C&W from Kalash community, said while talking to this scribe that water flow has been stopped on the road as a first step to commence repair work. He said a pipe has been fixed in the road for the flow of water as a temporary arrangement. He said a concrete road from Chew Bridge to ?Airport will be constructed after approval of tender.

Water was continuously flowing from a mountain near Chew Bridge ?on the road and falling into Chitral River. This caused soil erosion and it was feared that the road will fall into the river. Accidents happen in the area due to soil erosion in which precious lives are lost. Two years ago, a piece of road fell into the river due to which a jeep plunged into the river and resulted into nine deaths. Another incident of soil erosion also happened at the river bank recently.

The people of Chitral have appreciated the C&W executive engineer for finally taking notice of the issue and starting work on the road repair. They hoped that the government will soon fulfil its promise of allocating Rs500 million for beautification of Chitral by repairing all the roads and establishing protective fences on the bank of the river. They said repair of the roads was inevitable to attract tourists to Chitral Valley. They said tourism is not flourishing in Chitral up to its potential due to poor condition of roads. .. GH Farooqi, Chitral 19 March 2020

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *