Aftermath: Muddy Jabori Road makes travel an uphill task

Six-foot-wide, makeshift passage is narrow, dangerous

MANSEHRA: Authorities failed to repair Jabori Road even though nearly 18 days have passed since heavy rain and snowfall lashed Hazara Division.

On February 11, a landslide blocked a large portion of the road, which is situated near a suspension bridge of Sum Elahi Mang village – around 15 kilometres from Mansehra city.

The road is flanked by over a 100 villages, including Jabar Devli, the native village of Mansehra district nazim Sardar Said Ghulam. Following the heavy downpour, Jabori Road remained closed till the evening of February 12. Routine life was paralysed.

Insiders familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune, locals and transporters removed the landslide debris and created a narrow passage for cars to pass through. This was done because a consider able number of people visit the city from other parts of the country.

Dangerous passage

This six-foot-wide passage makes for perilous driving. The road is narrow, muddy and unpaved and has created problems for passenger vehicles to pass through.

“Driving through this route is very dangerous, especially during rainy days,” Amjad Khan, the driver of a passenger vehicle told The Express Tribune. “There is a strong chance our vehicles might slip and plunge into River Siran that flows adjacent to the road.”

According to Amjad, villagers have tried to widen the road quite a few times by clearing the debris. “However, more debris falls back onto the route,” he said.

“Every time we drive on Jabori, I close my eyes in fear that the van will slip and fall into the river” said Noor Bibi, a student of class eight in Shinkiari.

A few yards away from this site is another spot on the road where another landslide struck a year ago. According to insiders, the authorities failed to clear the debris from the route. As a result, locals were forced to take matters into their own hands and construct a narrow passage.

A landslide by any other name

When contacted, district nazim Sardar Said Ghulam, who frequently uses this road to travel to his village, said the debris was not produced by landslides.

“On the contrary, dirt from a nearby hill has fallen on the road,” he said. “I had the area cleared. However, it was difficult to remove the debris from the area as it was too heavy.”  Ghulam added dirt has been falling off the hill and onto the road for several decades.

“I have asked the communication and works department to submit a proposal to address the matter and widen the road,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2016.