Upper Swat residents, tourists continue to suffer

KALAM (Swat): There seems to be no end to the woes of thousands of people in upper Swat as well as tourists coming from all over the country to the picturesque valley as the long-awaited 35 kilometres Bahrain-Kalam Road is unlikely to be completed even next year.

Residents and government officials told The News that the delay is apparently due to local political circumstances.The Bahrain-Kalam road was washed away by the devastating floods in 2010 that cut off upper Swat for several weeks from the rest of the country.

It links several tourist spots in upper Swat including Bahrain, Kedam, Mankiyal, Kalam, Gabral, Utror, Ushu, Mataltan and the famous Maho Dandh Lake.The district administration and residents later managed to repair parts of the damaged road so that it could be used by vehicles.

After seven years of long struggle and protest rallies by the residents of upper Swat and hoteliers, the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government approved Rs3.5 billion for the re-construction of the road.

The PML-N Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President Amir Muqam, who remained federal minister also, had inaugurated the road construction project in May 2017. It was supposed to be completed in two years.

Before this, the same road project was announced several times by local politicians.Many people were unsure that the road would be built as they suspected that since elections were close, the PML-N leader Amir Muqam was attempting to get sympathies of the people.

However, the federal government fulfilled its commitment and provided funds for the road.Frequent inaugurations of the road in the past had disappointed the people and when it was inaugurated in May 2017, they insisted they would take it seriously when machinery arrives and work is started.

By coincidence, this correspondent was in Swat when heavy machinery was moved to the site.The excitement of the people was visible when they saw heavy machinery being transported to Swat as they believed their suffering would end once the road is built.

The construction work didn’t stop even in winter but the government, particularly the National Highway Authority (NHA) could not honour its promise.The government officials and some Swat politicians told The News that the road project got delayed due to political differences between the local leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Pleading anonymity, they said that since Amir Muqam’s construction firm had also obtained two contracts of the Bahrain-Kalam road project, certain PTI leaders in Swat didn’t want him to continue his work when they came into power in 2018.

“The entire project was divided into six parts. Four of the contractors were given the road construction project while Amir Muqam’s firm was allotted the two contracts for building bridges. Each contract comprised of 12 bridges and overall Amir Muqam’s firm was required to build 24 bridges,” the government official explained.

According to sources, PTI lawmakers from Swat were not satisfied with the quality and pace of construction work and wanted to cancel the contract of Amir Muqam’s firm.“It was not easy but the government managed to cancel the two contracts with Amir Muqam’s firm. Now the government would have to retender the two contracts and construction work on bridges is likely to be started next year,” said the official.

When reached on phone, Amir Muqam confirmed to The News that two of his contracts had been cancelled at a time when he had spent funds on moving machinery and other items to the construction site.

However, he rejected the allegations that his contracts were cancelled due to slow construction work or poor quality of material.

“It was political victimization. I have arranged funds from the Annual Development Programme and like other reputed construction firms our company also applied and got two contracts. I suffered losses of Rs400 million when they cancelled my two contracts worth Rs1.2 billion,” Amir Muqam maintained.

He alleged that PTI MNA and Federal Communication Minister Murad Saeed had issued clear cut instructions to his department to terminate contracts of Amir Muqam’s construction firm.

“Now if they retender the contracts, it would delay the road project and cause losses to the national exchequer as it would cost double to construct these 24 bridges. Obviously, it would damage tourism and make it difficult for the people to travel,” Amir Muqam added.Efforts were made to seek comments of Communication Minister Murad Saeed but he neither answered phone calls nor replied to text messages sent to his cell phone.

A PTI MNA from upper Swat Dr Haider Ali said he had raised the issue of delay in the construction of Bahrain-Kalam road in the National Assembly. He accused Amir Muqam of using delaying tactics in completing the project.

“It is my constituency and is the hub of tourism in the country. Recently I went to Kalam with Minister Shireen Mazari and we were stuck for three hours on the road. I am not sure if it can be completed even next year,” he said. The government terminated contracts of Amir Muqam’s construction company but no action was taken against the other contractors as they may be unlikely to complete their task by the end of this year.

KP Tourism Minister Atif Khan had claimed that work on the road would be completed by the end of 2019. This year a record number of tourists visited Swat using the newly built Swat Motorway but they complained about the tiring and backbreaking journey on the dilapidated Bahrain-Kalam road.