Suggestions made for Lowari Tunnel project

[LahoreEstate]

CHITRAL: The Lowari Tunnel, having the total length of 8.5 kilometres, has become a reality for the Chitralis and a milestone in the history of Chitral.

The NHA and the Sambu Construction Company vehicles are plying comfortably through the tunnel from one end to the other, which proves the tunnel is now fit to take in vehicles.

The next step planned for the tunnel is the laying of a railway track through it, which is estimated at Rs 5 billion.

The important point here was to re-think as to whether we really needed a railway track through the tunnel when all kinds of vehicles were already capable of driving through it, said an expert.

Even if we, for a moment, overlooked its whooping initial cost, railways service through the tunnel was an avoidable external factor and additional liability with all its associated problems like operating cost, maintenance, mismanagement, breakdowns, etc, besides causing an unnecessary wastage of time in loading/unloading of vehicles on the train at both ends, he added. Involving a railways system should best be avoided when the tunnel, without it, is capable of doing the needful, he said.

There are much longer, equally narrow, tunnels in Europe, including the 1980-constructed Gothard Tunnel in the Swiss Alps, which is 16.3 kilometres long and is a single-lane road tunnel.

In case of the Lowari Tunnel, at most a couple of additional ventilation ducts may be needed to be installed for the tunnel to be used as a regular road tunnel. Giving block timings for up/down traffic can regulate traffic through the tunnel. (The proposed railways system also is a one-way system).

What is more important is to judiciously use Rs 5 billion saved by scrapping the railways system.

Fardad Alis Shah, a politician and chief editor of the online paper Chitralnews.com, said that the saved amount could be used to construct a series of hydropower stations in Chitral and provide cheap electricity to the people to uplift their living conditions, protect forests and encourage small cottage industries requiring electricity.

Provision of affordable electricity is a need of the people, second only to the need for an all-weather road. By the grace of Allah, we achieved the all-weather road target, Shah said, adding that now, priority should be given to fulfilling our energy requirement.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=157692