KHYBER: Construction activities have been badly affected by shortage of building material in Landi Kotal owing to continuous closure of main Peshawar-Torkham Highway by Kukikhel protesters for the last 22 days.

Contractors and builders in Landi Kotal told Dawn that most of the building material was short in supply with its prices also jacking up by two folds owing to closure of the road.

Construction work on a number of commercial buildings in Landi Kotal bazaar and private houses was either completely halted owing to non-availability of the required material or slowed down owing to sudden rise in its prices.

Rehanullah Shinwari, a private contractor, told this scribe that rates of bricks, steel bars, cement and sand along with timber items also doubled during the last three weeks.

Contractors say prices of building material have also increased

He said that they would bring crushed stones from Jamrud with the payment of Rs50,000 per truck but now the truckers were demanding Rs90,000 to Rs100,000 per trip, which was beyond their financial capacity.

He said that most of the contractors or building material suppliers exhausted their old stock and were not in a position to afford high prices of those commodities along with increased fare of vehicles, which were bringing those items from Jamrud and Peshawar as they were compelled to use the unpaved and longer road between Malagori and Loe Shalman before reaching Landi Kotal.

The contractor said that suspension of building construction also rendered a large number of daily wagers jobless, who were confronted with serious financial crises.

Jibran Shinwari, a young journalist, said that his family also had to temporarily suspend the construction of their new house owing to shortage of building material and its inflated prices.

The closure of road also badly affected travelling between Landi Kotal and Peshawar as Kukikhel protesters again blocked the dirt road they had earlier kept open to light traffic.

Aman Ali, a local, said that ban on light vehicles resulted in increase of taxi fares as he had to walk on foot for about three kilometres to cross the protest camp at Bhagiyarree while going to Peshawar.

He said that ailing persons, women and children were affected the most as they were finding it difficult to walk on foot after disembarking from one vehicle and then catching another on the Jamrud side of the protest camp.

Mr Ali said that taxicabs too were short in number as most of those vehicles were avoiding taking passengers up to Bhagiyarree as they feared that they would not get returning passengers for Landi Kotal or Torkham.

Tribal elders and activists of various political parties and civil society organisations have termed the closure of road by Kukikhel protesters unjust and demanded of authorities to take steps for its reopening at ‘all costs’.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2024