Several passengers travelling to Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad were stranded at the Karakoram Highway on Friday as parts of the road that connects Punjab to Gilgit-Baltistan before crossing into China remained blocked in GB and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid rain-triggered floods, officials and a traveller said.
Ghulam Abbas, the National Highway Authority’s deputy director for Shangla and Kohistan in KP, told media that the Karakoram Highway was blocked at Jijal, Pattan, Uchar Nullah and other areas, adding that the Frontier Works Organisation was clearing the impediments.
Meanwhile, the bridge on Uchar Nallah, swept away by floods in August last year, has yet to be rebuilt.
Abbas said an under-construction bridge at the site was being opened for traffic from today as the makeshift route that was being used after the 2022 floods had been damaged.
Several link roads in the region were also blocked due to floods while GB and Kohistan were cut off due to the blocking of the Karakoram Highway.
Asadullah Khan, chairman of Upper Kohistan’s Harban tehsil, said after heavy rainfall, streams in his areas had overflown, resulting in the suspension of road traffic, blocking of pedestrian paths and damage to water supply schemes.
