Islamabad: (Parliament Times) A spokesman of National Highway Authority on Tuesday clarified that under-construction Lowari Tunnel is opened for general public in winter season as per Standard Operation Producers (SOP) issued by Government of KPK. As per said SOP the National Highway Authority (NHA) has to provide the tunnel only after necessary clearance/removal of construction machinery, however, the traffic control is the obligation of District Management along with Law Enforcement Agencies, wherein, the traffic is required to be allowed from one side of the tunnel at a time.
Accordingly, the tunnel was opened on January 6, 2017 (Friday) as per SOP which went smoothly. During the second opening of tunnel on January 13, 2017 (Friday) the traffic was allowed from both sides of the tunnel. Furthermore, it was declared mandatory in SOP that the vehicles should have snow-chains while crossing the tunnel, however, substantial vehicles were allowed without having the said arrangement. Resultantly, the vehicles got stranded on both side of tunnel on access roads.
After the hectic efforts of twenty hours by NHA and Law Enforcement Agencies the traffic was cleared from both side of tunnel i.e. on 13-14th January, 2017. There were 848 vehicles that crossed through tunnel from Dir to Chitral side and 705 Vehicles that cross the tunnel from Chitral to Dir side.
Keeping in view of the difficulties, NHA has now scheduled to open the tunnel for two days in a week (Tuesday & Friday) for general public.