Travelling on the dilapidated roads of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) has become a nightmare for travellers as the current poor condition of the most the area roads has badly exposed the poor performance of authorities concerned. In a survey conducted by this agency revealed that the ratio of accidents on Neelum Valley road on rise due to the negligence, carelessness and incompetence of the AJK government.
The main reason of raising road mishaps was the absence of road safety or fence walls along side of main road as this main lack causing a wave of concern among tourists. It revealed that the main Road from Cairn to Kel was under construction for past many months and recently contractor has left construction work which makes the journey on this road from minutes to hours.
On the other hand the base of road from Dawarian to Sharda has been completed, however the road carpeting work not started yet along with this the hilly parts of the road was also lacking safety fence wall that was the point of concern for travelers. While talking to this News agency area residents have viewed that number of accidents had been happened on this historic road due to the lack of protective wall along side of the road.
They disclosed that earlier, a tourist jeep fell into the Neelum River as jeep travelling between Kiel and Tao Butt in which twelve precious lives were lost and even most of the dead bodies were still missing. Most of the tourists and even local residents viewed that roads safety walls work should be started as soon as possible for the safety to them. They suggested that until the construction of a safety, iron safety shields should be installed immediately so that tourists can travel without any fear.
“Not having a safety wall at Neelum river hundreds of feet deep and landslides was tantamount to suicide” they viewed. They further stated that due to the sudden increase in horrific road accidents the tourists traveling ration was decreasing in each passing day as it was alarming for the high-ups. “Neelum valley was the most beautiful valley of Pakistan but it has become the most dangerous valley in terms of roads condition as sitting government has become completely clueless of the horrific situation, they reiterated.—INP
