Police open tourist facilitation centre on Hazara Expressway

MANSEHRA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Department on Tuesday opened tourist facilitation at the University interchange on Hazara Expressway here.

“We have established the centre by the order of IGP to facilitate Kaghan valley-bound tourists as the personnel deployed here will inform them about the latest weather and road situation and help them in case of any mishap,” DPO Zahoor Babar Afridi told a group of reporters after inaugurating the centre.

Flanked by the traffic and other heads, he said that the tourists and Gilgit-Baltistan-bound passengers used to stuck up in Kaghan valley owing to landslides on Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road but henceforth no such a situation would occur as the travelers would be informed well in time.

“We will stop the tourists in case of landslides or if the weather turns inclement,” Afridi said, adding that the centre would remain operational and extend its services to visitors around-the-clock.

The DPO also personally dealt with visitors from parts of the country and inquired about services being provided to them by the police department. “I have barred traffic wardens from fining tourists anywhere in the district as these people are our guests,” Afridi said.

He added that the traffic wardens would not only guide tourists but would also welcome them wholeheartedly.

Meanwhile, the DPO addressed a seminar regarding traffic rules at Hazara University and apprised students, faculty members and people from civil society about his department’s initiatives taken by him for better policing.

He also gave away helmets to bikers and sensitised them to wear those gadgets while travelling on roads for safety.