Court directs NHA to operate two-way traffic inside tunnel
CHITRAL: The district and sessions judge/judge consumer court of Chitral, Hidayatullah Khan, has directed the National Highway Authority (NHA) to maintain two-way traffic inside Lowari tunnel to ensure uninterrupted travel by commuters.
The court also directed security personnel deployed at the tunnel not to assume the job of the NHA by regulating traffic and perform their duty of maintaining security only.
The court issued these directions on a petition filed by an assistant director of the Consumer Protection Council of Chitral.
The complainant informed the court that the tunnel was a two-way carriageway but the security officials stopped passengers on one side of the tunnel to allow traffic from the other side and vise versa only.
As a result, passengers have to wait in long queues of vehicles on one side till vehicles waiting on the other side crossed the passageway. But in the meanwhile, official vehicles and those having connections with the officials are allowed entry without being stopped.
This attitude of the security officials violated the right of the passengers when the tunnel has been completed and its both lanes are operationalized, he added.
The Lowari tunnel is the sole communication facility for the people of Chitral and closing of one of the lanes inside it is causing hardship for the travellers. The court directed the NHA to allow two-way traffic inside the tunnel so that the passengers are not forced to wait on either side.
Bashir Hussain Azad
Thank you complainant and thank you judge sahib for taking this much needed step. Now the test is whether you can implement the order because in the past the NHA has flouted the orders of the chief Justice and resolution of the provincial Assembly on this matter.