NHA criticised over failure to open Lowari Tunnel

People want tunnel to remain open for traffic three days a week

CHITRAL: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) local leaders on Saturday criticised the National Highway Authority (NHA) over failing to remove snow and reopen the Lowari Tunnel road for traffic due to which passengers had been struck and forced to spend the night in vehicles and caves in the biting cold.

Thousands of people had been stuck on both sides of the Lowari Tunnel due to reported mismanagement and failure of the NHA to remove the snow from the road in the Dir side of Lowari Tunnel.

District chief of JI Maulana Jamshed Ahmad and others told a press conference that 3,000 vehicles had been stuck on both side of the Lowari Tunnel due the mismanagement of the NHA.

They said the passengers, including women and children, were forced to spend the night in vehicles and caves in the mountains in the biting cold.

The JI leaders said that the passengers were sent back to Chitral after being stuck for 19 hours near the Lowari Tunnel in severe cold conditions.

They said the people of the landlocked district were the ultimate victims of the negligence and incompetency of the NHA which could not ensure smooth flow of traffic in winter.

Flanked by other party leaders including Jehanzeb Khan, Qari Aziz, Ziaul Haq Mujahid, and others, he said that the federal government had no excuse after the District Council of Chitral had offered it to pay the cost for suspension of development work and keeping the Lowari Tunnel open to traffic for three days a week.

The JI demanded the government to keep the Lowari Tunnel open to traffic for at least three days a week to ease the hardships of the people.They threatened to observe a shutdown and hold a long march if their demands were not met.