Tunnelling process of Rs 8 billion Lowari Tunnel project on Nowshera-Dir-Chitral Road (N-45) has been completed while its civil works are being done now on war footings and the project would likely to be opened for traffic by early 2010.
A source in National Highway Authority (NHA), Ministry of Communications told APP on Saturday that work on the 9 km each access roads on both sides of the tunnel has also been completed. To a question, he said that digging for the 8,600-metre long tunnel was completed in January this year. The source said that the project would be opened to the public by early 2010.
The tunnel cannot be opened for traffic as the civil works process was still in progress and would take at least six to seven months to complete, the source added. The 8.6 km-long rail tunnel will provide all-weather communication linkage to the Chitral Valley, which remains cut off with the other parts of the country in winter. It would also facilitate Pakistans link with Tajikistan, a landlocked Central Asian state, via a narrow strip of Afghanistan.
With its completion distance between Peshawar and Chitral would be reduced to five to six hours, he added. The tunnel, he said, would open the landlocked culturally rich district for tourism and would connect it with Central Asian states and promote trade and investment in the region. Initially, a train would run into the tunnel and will take about 45 minutes from one end to the other.
Work on the project started in 2005 but it was formally inaugurated in July 2006.A Korean firm is constructing around 9 kilometers long, 7.5 metre wide and 7 metre high tunnel. The source said that the project would be completed in two phases.
In the first phase tunnel would be constructed while in the second phase a railway track would be laid, he added. He said it would be the biggest freight tunnel in Asia, adding that the project is a joint venture between Korean firm SAMBU and some Pakistani firms. It was more than 50 years back when first feasibility was taken up by the Government in 1955 and the first construction was undertaken under the Frontier Works Organisation in 1975 during Zulfikar Ali Bhuttos regime.
Comments
Comments are closed.