AYUN: Work on the construction of Kalash valleys road has been stopped a few months after its inauguration due to shortage of funds, sources in the NHA told ChitralToday.
The project to construct the road to the popular tourist destination of Kalash valleys was visualized years back, but the KP government did not release funds for it till the area people held a number of protests.
They even offered to the government to start work pending payment of compensation to the people of Ayun whose land was to be acquired for the project.
The provincial government then released only Rs220 million which was peanuts for continuing the work, but the construction was launched in March this year.
It was expected that the government would allocate sufficient funds in the new fiscal year (2022-23) for the project but it didn’t. The construction work remained slow since the outset due to the lack of interest on part of the government in the project.
The sources said at least Rs70.7 million were required to pay compensation to the affected landowners.
Due to non-release of more funds, work on private as well as state land could not be continued and the contractors have sent their workers home and parked all the machinery.
Local people said the KP government’s claim of working for promotion of tourism was a political gimmick and it has utterly failed to work for the development of basic road infrastructure to facilitate access to the tourist areas.
They called upon the elected representatives of Chitral to take up the matter with higher authorities to release funds in order to continue work on the Kalash valleys road and complete it without further delay.–Muhkam Uddin Ayuni