Staff Reporter
The majority of the road lights, en-route Monal restaurant, are dysfunctional for since long, posing grave threat to the life and properties of motorists, who swarmed the lovely tourist location especially after sunset to take a glimpse of the glittering city from hill top.
More than half of the lights along the nine km hilly route, having many dangerous sharp curves, require Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) urgent attention for overhauling to ensure tourists’ and locals’ safety.
Talking to media, Ishfaq Ahmed said he narrowly escaped an accident last week after he encountered a drove of pigs en route Monal that appeared suddenly from green areas along the hills.
The motorist, who visited the Monal restaurant along with his family, said he was lucky enough to escape the accident, adding, the situation needed rectification measures from authorities concerned to save the life and properties of people.
Ijaz Ahmed, a motorcyclist from Rawalpindi, said in his opinion, two wheelers were more prone to accidents on the route along Daman-i-Koh as motorists coming from opposite side use high beams, creating more visibility problem due to darkness on the road.
He also urged for early restoration of the out-of-order lights for public safety under its newly launched initiative of the Light up Islamabad, aimed at restoring beauty of the capital city .
A foreign visitor said his dream came true as he finally visited the place after waiting for this day for last couple of days, but he regretted that the place was deprived of the major facility needed for the tourists’ safety.
“Traveling at night with family on a dark road was a matter of concern which must be taken up seriously,” he remarked.
“Once there was a time when the scenic site attracted the tourists due to the zigzag en-route lights from the Zero Point appeared as a big snake moving in the Margalla hills,” said Usman Khan while commenting on faulty street lights along the Daman-i-Koh route.
He said it was very unfortunate that the area had failed to compel the first-time visitors to the capital to visit the hill top location that now appeared as tiny dots from the Islamabad Expressway.
A policeman at the picket near Islamabad Zoo, requesting anonymity, said over 1,000 tourists daily visited the picturesque site and many complained about the defunct lights.
When contacted, CDA Member Finance Rana Shakeel said their main focus was to fix lights of urban areas on priority. However, he assured that the issue would soon be resolved.
