Residents start repairing Bahrain-Kalam Road

PESHAWAR: Disappointed with the federal government and particularly the National Highway Authority (NHA), the residents and Kalam Hotel Association, Swat, on Monday started repairing a portion of Bahrain-Kalam Road that was damaged during the 2002 floods.

Also, the residents and hotel owners of Kalam accused the local administration of the Bahrain subdivision of threatening them to stop repairing the road as it was giving a bad name to the government.

According to Dr Abdul Wadood, president of Kalam Hotel Association, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had visited Kalam, following the 2022 floods that damaged a portion of the Bahrain-Kalam road, and pledged to immediately restore the road for traffic.

He said the residents of Kalam on a self-help basis had collected donations and started repairing the road.Dr Abdul Wadood said the National Highway Authority had later sent a few machines to divert the river flow from the main road, but couldn’t repair a portion of the road and bridges in two years.

“We waited for two years as the NHA officials had made several promises to repair a portion of the road along with bridges but they failed to deliver. Now the local community in support of hotel owners decided to repair the road and enable the tourists to visit the picturesque Kalam valley,” Dr Abdul Wadood told The News from Kalam.

He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced Rs2 billion for repairing of the road and bridges in 2022, but he could not honour his pledge, though he is known for fulfilling his commitment.

“We wanted to know what happened to the Rs2 billion that the prime minister had announced for the Bahrain-Kalam Road as even one percent of work was not done on the road,” he said.Dr Wadood said that the entire tourism of Kalam as well as the economic growth of thousands of people in the valley was dependent on the good condition of Bahrain-Kalam Road.

“If the road is in good condition, tourists will come to Kalam. And if the tourists come there, it will bring prosperity and happiness to the valley and its people,” said the president of the hotel association.

The Bahrain-Kalam Road had been in poor condition for the past several years but former prime minister Nawaz Sharif then provided huge funds and built a carpeted road between Bahrain and Kalam. It gave a great boost to tourism, attracting thousands of tourists from across the country.

However, the floods in 2022 again damaged around six kilometers road and caused damage to regional tourism. Dr Abdul Wadood said hundreds of volunteers helped them repair the damaged road and restore double tracks for traffic in several places.

“There used to be traffic jams in some places where only a single vehicle could pass through the road. We made several appeals to NHA to restore those double tracks for traffic but they couldn’t get it done, saying they didn’t have funds,” the president of the hotel association said.

Ghulam Nabi, manager of a hotel in Kalam, said that tourists from across Pakistan wanted to visit Kalam and other valleys but many of them were reluctant to come due to the poor condition of the road.