CHITRAL: Garam Chashma road could not be reopened even after seven days after the recent unprecedented snowfall blocked it along with all other passageways across Chitral.
As a result, people of the whole Garam Chashma valley are stranded and on Wednesday they had to carry a dead body on their shoulders from Shoghore town to a village in Lotkoh.
The only road to Garam Chashma is blocked from Shoghore due to which over 50,000 residents of the valley remain cut off. The National Highway Authority claimed to have cleared the road till Shoghore, but strangely this portion of the road was never blocked for long.
If the road is not reopened within two days, the stranded people of Garam Chashma will take to the streets, said Salim Khan, former KP minister and PPP leader.
Moreover, the NHA is using an excavator to remove snow from the road instead of using a boulodozer, making the whole activity unproductive.
The residents of Garam Chashma said that the NHA should have felt the miseries of the stranded people even after they carried a dead body on their shoulders and expedited the snow removing work to reopen the road. Besides, the area is running out of essential commodities and if the road is not opened on priority the situation could further deteriorate.
The residents of Garam Chashma have appealed to the district administration of Lower Chitral and the high-ups of the NHA to mobilize more machinery and staff to remove snow and reopen the road without any further delay.