Naran gets ready to welcome tourists

Officials from the National Highway Authority (NHA) and the Balakot tehsil administration announced on Sunday that the road to Naran has been reopened after five months of closure due to heavy snowfall. Arrangements for tourists are expected to be completed within the next three days.

Naran, one of the most frequented tourist attractions in the country, was closed in November last year, following heavy snowfall in the area. Local officials said that the road had been opened after cutting glaciers that blocked the Kaghan Highway. Naran is located in the upper Kaghan Valley in the Mansehra District of the K-P at an altitude of 2,409 meters. According to some estimates, around 1.5 million people visit Naran Valley every year.

Naran is also the gateway to Gilgit Hunza in summers via the Babusar Pass. During the winters the temperature often remains below 0 °C with heavy snowfall. In the summers the temperature rarely exceeds 15 °C with heavy rainfall. The tourist destination remains very busy in summers, when the snow-covered roads are opened. The public movement continues until the autumn. In the winter snowfall blocks the roads.

"The Kaghan Highway has been reopened for traffic up to Naran after a five-month-long closure," the Mansehra District Police officer said on Sunday. "The NHA has restored the road for traffic by cutting off large glaciers on the Kaghan Highway."

The Balakot Tehsil administration instructed the tourists to head to Naran, when the weather cleared and facilities were complete. The DPO said that arrangements for tourists in Naran would be completed in the next three days.

The NHA officials said that work was in progress to open the Kaghan Highway up to Babusar Top, the entry point to the G-B region, located some 65 kilometres away from Naran.