Work on to reopen Kaghan Valley road

MANSEHRA: The National Highway Authority (NHA) has cleared the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road till the Pondain Glacier with the support of a Chinese company working at the Suki Kanari Hydropower project.

“This strategically important artery, which links Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Gilgit-Baltistan, was blocked to all sort of traffic after the heavy snowfall in Kaghan valley in November last year,” Hussain Deen, the chairman of the hoteliers association in Kaghan valley, told reporters on Sunday.

“The road has been cleared of snow and it is hardly a 10 km away from the Naran,” he said, and hoped the road could be opened to the traffic within the next two weeks up to Naran, the commercial hub of the Kaghan valley.

“The hoteliers and other business entities would start commercial activities while strictly following the standard operational procedures set by the government to contain the spread of novel coronavirus,” Hussain Deen said.

Ali Asghar, a local, said thousands of families, who had shifted to the lower parts of Hazara division following the snowfall last year, would start returning back to their abandoned houses in Kaghan valley as soon as the road is opened to traffic.