Lowari Tunnel was opened in July 2017, construction was partly completed and officially opened to public with 85% work complete. The tunnel is divided into two parts, tunnel is about 8.5 km and tunnel 2 is 1.9 km long. A 10.4 kilometers vehicular tunnel under the Lowari Pass of the Hindu Kush mountains, between Dir and Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The tunnel essentially allows traffic on the N45 National Highway to bypass the Lowari Pass and was intended to reduce the 14 hour drive between Chitral and Peshawar to only 7 hours.
The construction began in September 1975 as a railway tunnel, inaugurated by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. It was expected to complete in 2009, with conversion into a vehicle road tunnel. In 2013, new plan was started by Prime minister MIan Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.
The tunnel will also facilitate all-weather transportation, as during the long winter season the Lowari Pass is closed, and people of Chitral have to travel into Afghanistan and then back into Pakistan to reach the rest of the country. When the border is closed Chitral remains virtually inaccessible during the winter.
Location
| Chitral Road Zyarat, Lowari Pass, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan |