Bad weather disconnects Chitral from rest of the world

Gul Hammad Farooqi

CHITRAL, March 2: The Chitral District of Khyber – Pakhtunkhawa Province has once again received heavy snowfall,  resulting in blockade of the main access route near Ziarat and Dir . PIA flights have also been out of operations for the last 9 days.

Besides, the main road of Sub Division Mastuj has been blocked due to land sliding and avalanche at various places. The Garam – Chashma road is also reportedly blocked for the last 3 weeks. Blockade of the roads has laid to shortage of edible items, like fresh vegetables and poultry products, in different parts of Chitral.

A road connecting Chitral to Gilgit – Baltistan is also blocked at Shandur heights as a result of heavy snowfall.

Electricity supply from the national grid has been suspended due to a fault in transmission lines as a result of heavy snowfall at Lowari Top.

Electricity woes of the main Chitral town are increasing because of old power houses that can not be relied on for sustained power supply. power house is very old one and can not effort load even of Chitral town area.

PESCO Chitral’s line staff have, reportedly, removed links of different transformers to disconnect power supply from local hydro power station as a result thousands of consumer are facing numerous problems.

Social and political circle of Chitral have demanded from Provincial as well as Federal government for early opening of Lawari tunnel road and supply of Gas Cylinder on subsidize rate as well as up gradation of local hydro power station from 1 to 4 megawatt so as to save cutting of forest