Mastuj-Shandur road in ruins

GHIZER, June 23: Former President Pervez Musharraf had given the gift of a wide road to link Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral, besides planning to lay a network of roads in the region to facilitate the masses. However, due to the rampant corruption and lack of accountability in the communication and works department of Chitral, this vital road has totally ruined in teh Chitral within a short period of time. This was stated by Mir Gulab Shah, a social worker from Laspur valley, while talking to this correspondent in Ghizer. He said today even small vehicles are not able to ply on the Masstuj-Shandur road and it takes too much time to reach any destination on either side of the Shandur pass. He said for the last many years debris and boulders lying on the Shandur-Mastuj road had not been removed as the department has no appointed workers on the road. Mr Shah said that due to the mountainous terrain of the area, boulders and stones continued to fall on the road, threatening the lives of the passengers and causing frequent accidents on the road. He said the road between Mastuj and Shandur had not been widened but NATCO buses were still plying between Gilgit and Mastuj which was dangerous. He said it ahs become usual for passengers to remove debris and boulders from the road in order to continue their travel otherwise they remain stuck for hours. In such a situation, the C&W department remains oblivious to the issue and has not yet taken any step to clear the road for smooth traffic. He said due to the pathetic condition of the road, buses are running on the road at 10 kilometres per hour, wasting the precious time of the people. Mr Shah feared that if the condition of the road remained the same, it would not be possible for NATCO to run its buses between Mastuj and Gilgit, creating lots of problems for the travellers.]]>