Lowari Tunnel Brings Respite For People Of Chitral In Winter Season

Lowari Tunnel, the long awaited mega project completed by PML-N government last year, has brought great respite and happiness on the faces of Chitral's people, who are enjoying uninterrupted travelling facilities despite of heavy snowfall on Lowari Top in this winter season

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Lowari Tunnel, the long awaited mega project completed by PML-N government last year, has brought great respite and happiness on the faces of Chitral's people, who are enjoying uninterrupted travelling facilities despite of heavy snowfall on Lowari Top in this winter season.

Prior to construction of Lowari Tunnel, Chitral remained virtually in accessible during winter season as rough Lowari Top remained normally closed for four to five months due to heavy snowfall and resultantly, people of this mountainous district were disconnected from rest of the country.

Inaugurated by former Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on July 20 last, more than 500,000 population of Chitral are being facilitated from the longest tunnel of the country throughout the year with numerous positive effects on economy, trade, business, tourism, agriculture and forestry besides other socio-economic sectors of KP.

The 8.5kilometers long main tunnel and 1.9 KM small tunnel of Lowari besides 35 kilometers access roads and 12 bridges were completed at a cost of about Rs 27 billion, courtesy to PML-N government.

Development works on the mega project that remained suspended from time to time due to various reasons during the last four decades, was finally completed by the sitting government during its four years tenure.

The project saw many ups and downs during last four decades and remained incomplete due to lackluster approaches of the past governments and problems of people have increased manifolds due to its incompletion.

For the first time, work on the tunnel began in 1975 but stopped in 1977 after change of the government and excuse of unavailability of funds landing the project in cold storage until September 2005.

Practical work on the project resumed in September 2005 and was supposed to be completed by 2008 as per its original PC-1 of Rs 9 billion. The completion time of the project was further extended when the then government had decided to change its' design and convert it into a road tunnel in 2009 rather than the rail tunnel as per the original plan.

Work on the road tunnel continued on snail pace owing to multiple reasons including paucity of funds, dispute on release of funds between the client and consultants and prolonged winter season.

The sitting PML-N government after coming into power in 2013 had accepted the challenge of completion of Lowari Tunnel and approved additional funds for it that helped its quick completion. M Ibrahim who worked as project director Lowari Tunnel told APP that the sitting PML-N government had released over Rs 13billion including Rs 2 billion in 2013-14, Rs3 billion in 2014-15, Rs4 billion in 2015-16 and Rs4 billion in 2016-17 for Lowari Tunnel that immensely helped its early completion.

Without PML-N government active support, this project was hardly be completed on time. The tunnel has cut short the current 14-hour long drive from Chitral to Peshawar to less than six hours. "Normally a bus driver was spending two and half hours on Lowari Top before reaching Chitral and now after completion of Lowari Tunnel it was consuming only 20 minutes to reach Chitral from Lowari Top," Ibrahim said.

"All kind of vehicular traffic can pass through 24 feet wide and 16 feet high tunnels round the clock including in harsh winter season at a speed of 40 kilometer," he maintained. The people of Chitral highly eulogized PML-N government for completing work on the much awaited project and thanked it for quick release of funds for it.

Gul Hamad and other area residents commended former Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif for completing the project on priority basis. They said Lowari Tunnel and 108 MWl Gollen Gol hydropower project of Chitral was the gift of PML-N government for the people of Chitral that would help expedite pace of economic development and open Chitral for investment and tourism.

They PML-N government had completed scores of mega uplift projects in KP including Nawaz Sharif Kidney Hospital Swat, Lowari Tunnel,Takhtbhai Flyover in Mardan and Hazara Motorway, which was making positive effects on the lives of people.

The KP people are now looking towards PML-N for solution of their problems and development as it was the only party that can address their issues. They said Lodhran election has testified that PML-N would form government in all provinces and center on the basis of development works in the country.