Bridge inaugurated

MANSEHRA: The traffic between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan resumed on Monday after the central bridge which was washed away in recent flash floods at the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road in the Mahandri area was inaugurated.

“The federal government has taken suspension of traffic between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan seriously and moved heavy machinery for an early installation of the steel bridge,” the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Member National Assembly Sardar Mohammad Yusuf told a ceremony held after reopening the bridge in Mahandri area by the Frontier Works Organisation Retired captain Mohammad Safdar, the son-in-law of the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was also in attendance.

Sardar Yusuf said that locals and tourists had been stranded in Manor and Khan valleys after flash floods wreaked havoc on July 30 this year and suffered hardships and difficulties.“The family of a woman and her son, and those whose shops were swept away in the tragedy are still without compensation money,” he said.

He asked the district administration to immediately complete a damage assessment and release the compensation amount to families and traders affected by the natural calamity.The MNA said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would also visit the area soon.“I have also taken up Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road’s dilapidated condition with the prime minister and he assured me of allocation of more funds for its blacktopping,” he said.