KKH blocked for hours as 22-wheeler overturns

ABBOTTABAD: Worst traffic blockade was witnessed on Karakoram Highway (KKH) in Abbottabad on Sunday following overturning of another 22-wheeler truck near Sabzi Mandi at the entrance of the city.

This is the second such incident within three days. Traffic remained blocked for at least four hours due to the accident in the early hours of Sunday and a long queue of the vehicles was seen on both sides of the road while the traffic police remained busy in resolving the issue.

Local shopkeepers and residents said it was a routine matter and around 12 such incidents took place in last couple of months when loaded trucks overturned at the same point. Most of the tourists complained they could only cross 5 kilometres patch from Muslimabad up to Abbottabad in more than two hours.

DPO Abbottabad Syed Ashfaq Anwar, when contacted, said that most alarming situation the Abbottabad traffic police are facing time and again was traffic blockade. "And NHA has been asked through letters and requests to re-design the dangerous turns from Muslimabad up to Mangal area but till date nothing has been done by the highway authority," he added.

Encroachments from the roads have been removed by the district administration but no work on the expansion of present roads has been done by the concerned executing agencies and he demanded the NHA officials to do it on war-footing keeping in view the gravity of the situation as hundreds of Chinese engineers and workers move on the roads for the completion of roads and tunnels on the main road on daily basis.

The DPO said that as heavy machinery would be transported with the loaded trucks of Chinese trade soon after the opening of Khunjrab border, which normally opens from May 1 and transportation of goods and equipment from Gwadar would be started, then it would be a dangerous situation to handle if expansion of the road and re-designing with re-engineering of the road were delayed.