PESHAWAR (BR - December 02, 2010) : The residents of the landlocked district Chitral here on Wednesday protest to express their concern over freezing of funds for coonstruction of Lowari Tunnel The protest camp held near Peshawar Press Club (PPC) was led by Convenor of the Movement for the Protection of the Rights of Chitral, former member National Assembly Abdul Akbar Chitrali.
Dozens Peshawar based residents of Chitral participated in the camp. Banners and placards inscribed with slogans demanding resumption of construction work on the tunnel. The protesting Chitralis told the journalists that the Lowari Tunnel scheduled to be complete by December 31. But the lack of the release of funds had halted it. A Korean construction company 'Samba' was carrying work on the project.
The lack of the release of funds has prompted the company for the stoppage of the payment of salaries to consultants since last eight months. Due to lack of funds, the foreign consultants and engineers had quit work and had left for their hometowns.
The estimated cost of the project was Rs 8 billion, but the delay in the work and freezing of funds had increased the cost to Rs 23 billion. The present government did not release the required funds, which forced the company on halting development work on the project. The previous provincial government of the religio-political alliance MMA was keenly focusing on the scheme and made unprecedented progress in this regard.
Central Naib Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Siraj-ul-Haq visited the camp and expressed solidarity with the protesting residents of Chitral. He said that the completion of the project would help minimise the hardships of the people of the landlocked district.
Chitral being a far-flung district of Peshawar remained cut from the whole country for a period of five to six months due to the closure of land route passing through Lowari Top. Due to the closure of the land route the people of Chitral used to enter their home district through Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
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