MURREE: The long-awaited reconstruction work of Murree-Kohala Road has started but only on a 23km portion from Lower Topa to Dewal, the native village of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

The rest of the road would be constructed after funds are released, said Punjab Highway Department’s Subdivisional Officer (SDO) Iftikhar Qureshi.

A year ago, repair work was started on the road but after digging it was stopped due to unknown reasons. According to the highway department, Rs370 million had been allocated for the repair work.

The Islamabad-Murree-Kashmir Highway connecting Islamabad and Punjab with Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) caters to heavy traffic of tourists, locals and people commuting between Punjab and AJK. The road has not been repaired for about 28 years.

Talking to this correspondent, Saeed Abbasi, Imran Abbasi, Hafeez Abbasi, Mubashir Abbasi and others said after so long the reconstruction of the road had been started but on a half portion of the road.

They appealed to the prime minister to release the approved funds for the construction of the road up to Kohala.

The SDO said Rs2.1 billion had been approved for the reconstruction of the road and Rs100 million transferred to the department.

He said the 23km-long portion of the road had been given to a private company which had started the reconstruction work and would complete it a year.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2018