Karimabad road needs realignment more than widening

Muhammad Uzair Ul Islam

KARIMABAD: The Karimabad-Shingle track was constructed from Hassanabad–Hinjil-Breshgram and Susum on a self-help basis in 1982. Due to paucity of resources and absence of technical expertise, the erstwhile foot track in the mountainous terrain was upgraded to jeepable track.
Conversely, the existing foot track gradients remain emplaced, obviously its alignment has not been easygoing for vehicles.
A common man travelling on this track would realize the need of realigning the track amidst danger and difficulty albeit commending their predecessors for constructing a jeepable track  with their shovels and picks while rebuking the public sector ignorance.

After four decades, there were hopes among commuters that they would get relief from the unfriendly climbing grades as sufficient funds were allocated for the reconstruction of the Karimabad road. Ironically, however, the funds are being spent on the widening of the road on the existing location without entailing  realignment to address the climbing grades.

The widening will give an interim relief and road extension will physically squeeze to barely serviceable width in due course of time due peculiar nature of terrain. Moreover, the current width of the road is adequately serving the desired purpose in view of the type and flow of traffic.

The area people say their main concerns are the climbing grades which need to be rectified at priority; everything else is secondary requirement. They requested their political leadership and concerned authority to respect the public opinion and meet the end user demand.