KKH closed as flood washes away bridge in Kohistan

By Our Correspondent
August 13, 2022

MANSEHRA: The traffic on the Karakoram Highway (KKH) was suspended after flash flood swept away a temporary steel bridge in the Ichar Nullah area of Upper Kohistan on Friday.

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“We had installed a bailey bridge some three days ago at Ichar Nullah. A flash flood swept away it and traffic between KP and GB was suspended,” Mohammad Asif, the deputy commissioner of Upper Kohistan, told reporters. He said that floods had swept away the concrete bridge installed at the same Ichar Nullah on August 1.

“The motorists and passengers travelling between KP and GB, who had been stranded following the incident on both sides of the KKH, have been leaving the area to their respective destination through alternative routes,” Asif said.

He said that the police at various points in Hazara division and Chilas had been asking travelers to use the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road.

The Frontier Works Organisation had moved its machinery to reinstall the Bailey bridge at the Ichar Nullah to restore the traffic temporarily between two federating units, he added.

“We have started the embankment of the KKH portion, which passes through the Nullah and would install the Bailey bridge at high altitude to avoid such an incident until the concrete bridge is constructed,” said the official.

The working sites of the Dasu hydropower projects were also inundated in the floods and machinery and shovel machines were swept away.

An official of the Dasu dam said that an inconceivable phenomenon was happening in the Ichar Nullah.

“The water was flooding at high speed and the heavy boulders, rocks and thick mud caused damage to the bridge and properties coming in its way,” he added.

“The Ichar Nullah swelled four times during the current monsoon season,” he added.

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