HARIPUR: The residents of Kali Tarar Gharbi village and neighbouring localities have expressed concern about the deteriorated condition of a road linking their hamlets to the Khanpur Road.

Speaking to mediapersons, Malik Arshad, Mohammad Younas, Arsalan, and others said the three and a half kilometres long road connecting a number of villages with the Hattar Industrial Estate was constructed about two decades ago.

They said hundreds of people, including government employees, used the road to reach the District Headquarters, Haripur, and the Tehsil Headquarters, Khanpur. They added the road had developed potholes as the authorities concerned had failed to carry out routine repair work.

The villagers said they were troubled especially when taking patients to hospitals, adding the Kali Tarar Gharbi village had a population of over 3,000 people who could not take their produce to the market due to bad condition of the road.

“The economic condition of the residents of our localities can improve if the road is blacktopped,” villager Akram said, adding the locals had invited the attention of the local political leadership several times to the worsening condition of the road, but to no avail. He said taking critical patients to hospitals was risky on the potholed road.

He said the van drivers mostly avoid picking and dropping passengers in their areas due to bad condition of the road. The villager said their area had remained neglected due to reasons best known to their elected leaders.

When contacted, District Development Advisory Committee Chairman and PTI MPA Arshad Ayub Khan told Dawn that a water supply project and pavement of streets were near completion in Kali Tarar Gharbi village. He said a JICA-funded farm-to-market road project with a cost of Rs130 million had already been approved. He said the delay in start of work was due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but expressed the hope that the work was likely to begin within next few days.

The lawmaker attributed the bad road condition and missing basic facilities in most of the localities of his constituency to lack of political will of the elected representatives in the past.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2020