CM special assistant visits site for bridge in Upper Chitral

CHITRAL: Special Assistant to Chief Minister Wazir Zada visited the site of a temporary steel bridge to be erected on a stream at Istaro point in Upper Chitral district.

Member Provincial Assembly Maulana Hidayatur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner Upper Chitral, Chitral Scouts Commandant Colonel Ali Zafar, elders of the area including Sultan Wazir, Haroon Khan, Safeerullah and others were present on the occasion.

Officials of the Communication and Works Department briefed the special assistant on the construction of a steel bridge on the stream at Istaro point.

They said that the construction of a temporary steel bridge would take some two months time, which would not facilitate the residents in the current winter and snowfall.

On this occasion, Wazir Zada said that the steel bridge was ready but technically its installation was not possible at the moment.

He thanked the people of Torkhow and said that he was visiting Chitral on the special directives of the chief minister owing to the sensitivity of the matter.

The elders of the area later demanded that the alternative road should be widened instead of erecting a steel bridge on the stream to facilitate the residents in the current winter.

A few days ago, elders of the area had expressed concern over the government failure to install a temporary steel bridge on the stream at Istaro point in Torkhow in Upper Chitral to facilitate the local residents.

They had said that the government was reminded time and again that over 65,000 residents of Torkhow and Tirich areas in Upper Chitral would remain cut off from the rest of the country if the steel bridge was not erected in the district before the advent of winter season and the subsequent snowfall.

They had also said that there would be an acute shortage of edibles and other essential items in case of snowfall in the winter season.

It may be mentioned that the bridge at Istaro point on the stream in Torkhow was washed away by the flashfloods but it was not reconstructed to facilitate the local residents.