KKH reopened for traffic after hours long closure

MANSEHRA: The Karakoram Highway (KKH) was reopened for traffic after the boulders were removed from the blocked portion of the artery at the Sumar Nullah area of Upper Kohistan.

Thousands of passengers and motorists, including women and children, had been stranded in long queues of vehicles on both sides of the KKH for hours after a landslide blocked the road at Sumar Nullah in the morning.

“The vehicles passing through the landslide-prone part of the KKH escaped unhurt miraculously when the heavy boulders detached from the high mountainous and blocked the artery,” said a passenger.

Deputy Commissioner, Upper Kohistan, Irfanullah Mehsud, when approached, said the personnel of Frontier Works Organisation along with heavy machines had reached the and cleared the blocked portion of the KKH to traffic. “Now the heavy boulders are removed from the artery and traffic is resumed,” he said.

The DC said the FWO and Chinese company working on the Dasu hydropower project were always efficient in ensuring the smooth following of traffic after clearing boulders anywhere at KKH in Upper Kohistan.

TRAINING: Rescue 1122 on Friday trained people on how to deal with the manmade and natural calamities in Village Council Safada.

“Such pieces of training are most beneficial for people on how to deal effectively with different emergency situations raised by manmade and natural calamities,” Basharat Ali Swati, the chairman of Safada Village Council, told the training session.