Lowari tunnel digging to complete by December

Report Zahiruddin, Chitral

Digging for the 8,600-metre long Lowari Rail Tunnel will be completed by the first week of December this year, an official source said. So far, he added, 7,152 metres drilling has been completed.

The source said that work was in full swing and 4,032 metres of digging had been completed on the Dir side (south portal), while 3,120 metres of digging had been completed on the Chitral side (north portal).

He said that the second phase of the project was laying of railway track and electrification, which would commence from the first month of the next year, while a two-kilometer long approach tunnel on Chitral side would also be constructed to provide all-weather access to the tunnel during the winter season.

The source said that the project would be opened to the public by the end of 2009. Regarding the importance of the project, he said that inaugurated by President Pervez Musharraf on July 8, 2006, the project ranked fifth out of the 20 mega projects initiated by the government in the country, which provide all-weather route linkage to the district with the rest of the country during the winter season.

During winter, Chitral district becomes inaccessible, when the Lowari Pass (10,500 ft) receives heavy snow and closes for four months and the residents are virtually imprisoned within the boundaries of the district.

The tunnel will reportedly reduce the current 14-hour drive from Chitral to Peshawar by half. The width of the tunnel is 7.5 metres, while its height is 7 metres and the cost of the project is 8 billion rupees ($133 million), the source said.

After completion, the tunnel will also provide road link to the Central Asian state of Tajikistan via Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan. Feasibility study on the project was carried out by the government in 1955 and work on it was started by the Frontier Works Organisation in 1974, which was later stopped by Gen Ziaul Haq.

Presently, the construction work has been assigned to a Korean company, Sambu and the National Highway Authority is the executing agency. The people of Chitral are attaching great importance to the project which, they hoped, will bring about progress and prosperity in the backward area.