Daily Times

In recent severe snowfall in Balochistan, the National Highway Authority (NHA) undertook emergent steps and ensured early removal of snow from affected sections of the national highways in Balochistan, according to a press release issued by the organization.

Consequent upon a weather alert issued by metrological department regarding heavy snowfall in Balochistan, the NHA Quetta prepared a comprehensive plan for the said task in order to ensure successful execution of the critical snow removal operation for the safety of commuters. Routine maintenance contractors and personnel were asked to deploy their machinery and staff at the critical locations of Khojak Pass, N-25, Mastung-Lakpass-Quetta, N-25, Kolpur N-65, Khanozai-KanMehterzai-Muslim Bagh, N-50, Mangocher-Kalat-Surab, N-25 and Lakpass-Kanak N-40.

The field officers of NHA also remained at site during the spell of snow fall and were all time in coordination with district administration of all the relevant districts i-e Qilla Abdullah, Mastung, Pishin, Kalat, Bolan and Qila-Saifullah to ensure early removal of snow from National Highways and management of traffic.

All critical sections of national highways were cleared timely by deploying heavy machinery such as graders, loaders, tractors, pickups and by sprinkling salt at cleared sections.

Governor Balochistan Amanullah Khan Yasinzai and Chief Secretary Aurangzeb Haque along with MPA Shahina Kakar visited N-50 and appreciated the efforts of NHA for clearance of main critical sections and instructed to help district administration and people of the area in clearance of link roads along N-50. Two graders were therefore deployed by NHA on provincial link roads of Kan Mehterzai Town.

Since the initial spell of snowfall, NHA Quetta has been working on all national highways in Balochistan to ensure their operational activity. Snow clearance machinery was deployed from the very first day which was augmented due to severity of the weather.

Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan also called the Chairman NHA Capt (r) Sikandar Qayyum for arrangement of an additional crane and a few graders. Accordingly, two additional graders and one crane were arranged for Khanozai-KanMehterzai-Muslim Bagh section.