By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The volume of vehicular traffic dropped to a low level here on Wednesday as petrol and diesel was said to have run out in the petrol pumps across the district due to the strike of carriage contractors of PSO demanding rise in their transportation charges.
Very few motor vehicles were seen on the roads of the city as the motorists could not bring their vehicles to the roads due to the shortage of fuel as the petrol pumps while the intra-district passengers transport vehicles were also less in number in the bus stands creating problems for the commuters.
A large number of passengers were seen in the bus stands waiting for vehicles which had a shortage due to the unavailability of fuel while a complete wheel-jam strike-like situation is anticipated within next couple of days when all the vehicles will be parked.
The manager of a local bus stand, Aftab Gul told Chitral Times that the vehicles coming from Peshawar and Islamabad have yet to suffer as they refueled while coming to Chitral while the situation has worsened in the intra-district routes which included Torkhow, Mulkhow, Booni, Drosh and Arandu routes.
He said that the petrol pumps in different localities of the district had already been closed down as they had exhausted their stock of diesel and petrol and presently there were a limited number of pumps which supplied only diesel to the vehicles.
