By Gul Hamaad Farooqui
CHITRAL: Reconstruction of Ghocharkoh road is a direly needed to promote tourism in Kalash valleys. The forest department had built Ghocharkoh road in 1963 to bring Deodar timber from Kalash valley to Chitral. This road passes through KushkanTek village at the foot of the mountains. There are dense forests, open fields and very beautiful tourist spots along this route. When a road was made on the river bank to the Kalash Valley, traffic on the upper (old) road was stopped, but motorcyclists and some tourists still traveled by foot because its the best trekking route.
Nowadays, due to the expansion and construction work on the existing Kalash Valley Road, the road is often closed for traffic several hours a day, causing traffic jams and causing difficulties for local travelers and tourists, alike.
Major Retired Shahzada Sirajul Malik, a well-known social worker and tour operator of Chitral, as well as a local person, Abdul Akbar, told this scribe that routes like Ghocharkoh are very attractive for domestic and, especially, for foreign tourists. The tourists would, instead of traveling in the deep valley along the riverbank, prefer to travel on the Ghocharkoh road, as there are wide fields and many other tourist spots on this route.
According to them, if the Ghochar mountain route is reconstructed and oepend for traffic, the tourists will never use the other route. Going ahead on the same road, there are more than two hundred people living in Kush Kan Tek village who are facing a lot of difficulties in commuting. Abdul Akbar and other local people also demand that traffic should be restored on this road so that they do face a lot of difficulties in bringing the necessary goods.
According to locals, traffic can be restored within a week with a nominal fund allocation for the Ghochar Koh road, which will not only provide an alternative way for tourists to travel on it, but also facilitate 230 people living along the route.
This alternate road of Ghochar Koh starts from Ayun and descends in the village of Sultanabad in Bomburit Valley and joins the main road. By reconstructing of Ghocharkoh road, tourism will also be boosted and by promoting tourism, poverty and unemployment can also be eradicated from this backward area as well.
