Lowari Tunnel: PHC orders priority passing for ambulance, petro-loaded vehicles

NHA’s counsel says authorities do not have fire extinguishing capacity.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has ordered that necessary steps should be taken to keep the Lowari Tunnel open for ambulances carrying patients from Chitral to other districts and vehicles transporting petrol.

The order was issued by a single bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan while hearing an application filed by the National Highway Authority (NHA). The court was informed by NHA’s counsel Sikandar Rashid that PHC had ordered on December 6, 2013 to keep the tunnel open at least three days a week. He further said that now the NHA project director, Chitral district government and concerned unit of the Pakistan Army had agreed to reopen the tunnel after two weeks but vehicles carrying petroleum products will not be allowed to go through it.

Rashid said the concerned officials have said a fire extinguishing system is not available to cater to vehicles carrying petrol so the court is requested to amend its previous order.

The chief justice remarked that if petrol was not provided to far flung areas then residents will be unable to transport edibles to other districts. The court ordered that Lowari Tunnel should be kept open for ambulances carrying patients, and petrol-loaded vehicles should be allowed to enter on specific petro-vehicle only days. If this is not possible, then a separate pipe should be constructed inside the tunnel to provide petroleum to the area, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2014.