Mansehra
District administration Mansehra on Saturday have opened Naran Jalkhad road that was blocked for last 30 hours at eight different places and evacuated hundreds of vehicles. According to the details, at Boi Jalkhad, the road was completely blocked by land sliding triggered by heavy downpour. Land sliding also claimed four lives including two children. The road was cleared of debris by the district administration, Rescue 1122, National Highways Authority (NHA) and other concerned departments.
Under the debris, dozens of goats and a honey farm was buried underneath and thousands of tourists spent a night in open air or in the cars. Police Control Room Mansehra informed that the bodies were shifted to Mansehra where two were identified as Shamim Akhtar W/O Saqlain Shah and Abid Javed S/O Mada Hussain of Layya. Meteorology Department has forecast more heavy rain and land sliding in the hilly areas of Hazara division during next 48 hours.
Kalam, one of the top tourists’ destination, would regain its lost glory and expected to attract huge number of travel enthusiasts as construction work on 32 kilometre Bahrain-kalam road is scheduled to be completed before next season. The 32 km bumpy hilly road that has been testing travelers’ nerves for the last nine years, devastated by floods in July 2010, would reduce half the travelling time after its completion.
An official source in Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP) regretted that it could not be developed due to an administrative and political rift between previous regimes of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) at the centre and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the province.—APP
