CHITRAL, Jan 6: The slow construction work at the 1.8 kilometers Abdul Wali Khan Bypass project here has turned into a source of nuisance for people as it has badly affected their mobility.

The bypass road starts from a hillock near Chew Bridge, which divides the town into two, and people on both sides of the bridge have been facing problems due to work on the project.

The project work started about 40 days ago, but only a few feet of rock has so far been cut and boulders are lying on the busy road connecting two parts of the city. People have also expressed their reservations about several curves in the bypass, saying it should have been straight.

Local people said that only two old excavator machines had been engaged in work on the site having a gradient of over 300 feet and length of 200 meters. Abdul Latif, the district president of Pakistan Tahrik-i-Insaaf, said that the project could take over six months to complete if work continued at the current pace while vehicular traffic between the two parts of the city would remain suspended.

He said that rock-cutting and excavation was carried out during night time for few hours only and the boulders and other debris were sold and removed during daytime. A labourer engaged in loading of boulders said that about 150 loads of mini-truck were sold daily.

Ghulam Mustafa, a retired teacher from Chuinj village of upper Chitral, said that the blockade of road had affected not only the city, but also the whole upper part of the district and the Lotkoh valley.

“I was going to hospital with a female patient and we faced a lot of trouble while crossing through the boulders,” he said and added that taxi drivers were demanding Rs600 for reaching the hospital through another route, which he could not afford.

Haji Ghulam Muhammad, a trade union activist, said that due to the lethargic attitude of the C&W department, they had been facing numerous problems. He alleged that the contractor was interested more in selling the debris of hillock than the construction of road.

He said that the bypass road project had been turned into trade of boulders and rocks. He demanded construction of a pedestrian bridge and speedy work on the site.

When contacted, Chitral's district coordination officer Rahmatullah Wazir said that rock-cutting was a difficult work and people should bear the hardships with patience to achieve their long-cherished project.

A PPP leader Gul Nawaz Khaki said that the road should be straight instead of having several curves. He alleged that the department's officials had tried to save the lands of certain persons due to which they had designed the road in zigzag manner.