Slight change made to Lowari tunnel opening hours

CHITRAL: The district administration on Friday made a slight change to the schedule of Lowari road opening for light and heavy traffic.

In a statement, the office of the Lower Chitral deputy commissioner said the Lowari tunnel and its approach roads would remain open for light vehicles from 4 in the morning to 5 in the evening every day. However, no vehicle would be allowed to plying in the snowbound roads without tyre chains.

Earlier, the district administration had announced that the tunnel would remain open from 4am to 6pm for light traffic and from 6pm to 10pm for heavy traffic.

Heavy vehicles such as trucks would be allowed to pass the tunnel from 5pm to 10pm. It may be noted that the tunnel and its approach roads on both the Chitral and Dir sides remained closed for three days after heavy snowfall on Jan 13.

After the removal of the snow, the roads remained slippery and dangerous for driving and more snowfall made the roads further treacherous.