Sharda Peeth corridor: Omar Abdullah urges Imran Khan to open Kargil-Skardu road
Srinagar: Following Pakistan’s decision to open the he Sharda Peeth corridor, former chief minister J&K Omar Abdullah on Tuesday urged Imran Khan to open Kargil-Skardu road as well.
Abdullah while welcoming the move by the Pakistani government said that more initiatives of this kind creating people to people contact need to be taken.
“After the welcome announcement to open the Sharda Peeth corridor to religious pilgrims by @ImranKhanPTI we hope the government in Pakistan will only announce the Kargil-Skardu road as also other routes to facilitate greater people to people contact,” Abdullah tweeted.
The Skardu–Kargil Road is 126 km provincial highway of Gilgit-Baltistan linking Skardu with Kharmang.
The original road continued on to Kargil from Kharmang parallel to the Shingo River, but has since been closed down since 1949. Part of the road on the Indian side of the LOC is now in India’s NH1.
Abullah said that: ‘It’s good to see @ImranKhanPTI take decisions that have been held up for years. Allowing greater people to people contact & opening routes to religious pilgrims are always welcome developments that help to ease tensions.’
“One can only hope that in a post May 23rd India these steps will be reciprocated by the central government & we can move towards resuming the comprehensive dialogue between India & Pakistan,” Abdullah said.
According to Zainab Akhter, a Research Officer at Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi historically, the all weather Kargil-Skardu route was a jugular of intra-regional trade on which the local economy was heavily dependent.
“The road from Skardu to Kargil via Srinagar is almost a stretch of 1,700Kms while, at the same time, Skardu is a 173kms or a five to six hours drive from Kargil. The entire route is, at present, suitable for four wheeled vehicles and may need some widening for a small stretch of about half a kilometre near the Line of Control (LoC). The utility of the Kargil-Skardu road also lies in its durability in winter months. At present there is only one pass Zoji-La (NH1) which connects the Ladakh region on the Indian side with the rest of the World. But this lifeline is cut off for more than six months in winters due to heavy snowfall and people spend their life in isolation specially in Kargil (Leh has an aerial connectivity from Srinagar, Jammu and Delhi),” Akhter wrote in her paper at IPCS.
KV Online
