Routine life comes to a standstill in Chitral

CHITRAL, Feb 3: After the heavy snowfall in Chitral town and other sub-valleys, life came to a standstill on Monday with people removing snow from the rooftops of their houses and traffic coming to almost a complete halt. Besides, children and young people were seen playing in the snow. But the town and its adjoining areas remained without electricity due to the collapse of the main transmission live on the Lowari top. As the under-construction Lowari Tunnel was opened on Sunday for a few hours, hundreds of passengers coming to Chitral from different parts of the country stranded at the Dir side as they reached there after the closing time at about 3pm and the NHA and Korean company staff did not allow them to cross the tunnel. Talking to ChitralToday form the Dir side of the tunnel Sajidullah Advocate said that when the passengers reached the tunnel at about 4pm they were not allowed entry, forcing the people, including women and children to wait under the heavy snowfall. As there were reports of over three feet of fresh snow on both sides of the tunnel, these passengers could not reach their destinations. The blockade of the roads to the city has resulted in shortage of food items, especially fresh vegetables which are supplied to the valley in the winter from other parts of the country. Reports also said that a number of roads to the sub-valleys of Garam Chasma, Ziarat and Kalash were blocked due to the rain and snowfall. In the remote areas of upper Chitral, though there were no reports of heavy rain, communication links remained disconnected due to the fault in the wireless telephones for the last over a month.–GH Farooqui]]>