Lowari tunnel may not be opened this winter

The development has turned the general public in Chitral apprehensive as the tunnel provides the only way of passage to the residents of Chitral when the Lowari top road is closed after snowfall. The installation of formwork inside the tunnel means its total closure for vehicular traffic till the removal of the shuttering which may take more than nine months. District nazim Maghfirat Shah said the people of Chitral would die of famine if the tunnel was closed in the winter season to traffic as the commodities of daily consumption run out in the absence of replenishment. He said the choice of the timing for formwork was inappropriate as there was no other route available to connect Chitral with the rest of the country after the Lowari top road was closed in early December to be reopened in the month of May next year. The people of Chitral said that instead of blocking the tunnel by formwork, work on the construction of approach roads should be started during the winter season as it would not affect the connectivity of Chitral by land with the rest of the country. The work on widening of Lowari tunnel will be completed within 40 days, according to official sources. A project official told this scribe that only 400 meters out of the 8.5 kilometres were left that would be completed within 40 days after which lining concrete would be started. He said that installation of formwork was already completed on both — south (Dir Upper) and north (Chitral) — portals of the tunnel. He said that the tunnel had originally been designed as rail tunnel which was later on modified to road tunnel requiring the widening of the tunnel by 2.5 meters. The official said that the lining work was the finishing of the interior structure of the tunnel after which electrification would be carried out and the tunnel would be opened to public transport. Work on the 20km approach road on both sides of the tunnel is yet to be started while the bridge over the stream at the south portal is yet to be completed.–Zahiruddin ]]>