The Karakoram Highway (KKH), referred to as the eighth wonder of the world, is no doubt a strategic source of connectivity between Pakistan and China. Built in 1978 after years of engineering and construction work, hundreds of Chinese and Pakistani workers and engineers gave their lives to complete the 1,300 km long road from Abbottabad to Khunjerab Pass.

Now that dams at Dassu and Diamer-Bhasha are being constructed, they will inundate parts of KKH till Chilas and an alternate road will be constructed to compensate for that. The historic and cultural heritage of KKH will be lost when the two dams producing thousands of megawatts of electricity will be completed over the next five years. It means KKH will not only lose its heritage, but its fallacy as the eighth wonder of the world will also be gone once the two dams will be operational and the historical Silk Road will disappear from the scene.

In a recent journey to KKH from Bisham till Gilgit, I witnessed the fallacy of the much-admired highway diminished as the depleted road from Bisham till Chilas reflected poor maintenance. Adding to the ordeal of passengers using KKH on way to Gilgit and beyond is the construction of Dassu and Diamer-Basha dams which prevented the use of that stretch of the highway from 8am till 1pm as well as in the evening. Indifference and incompetence of authorities responsible for the maintenance of KKH was clearly evident in the shape of lack of arrangements for passengers who remained stuck on the road for hours because of the construction work on the two dams. As it is known that thousands of........

© The Express Tribune