Tourists can now easily travel to the northern areas of Pakistan, via Jaglot-Skardu Road. This will boost the tourism in Pakistan.
An inadequate road infrastructure has long been a problem for tourists as well as residents, particularly traders, from Pakistan’s remote, picturesque Gilgit-Baltistan region, but the recent completion of a 167-kilometer-long road has not only reduced travel time, officials said, but also sparked excitement among locals that it will boost trade and tourism.
Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the Skardu International Airport and Jaglot-Skardu Road (JSR) during a day-long visit to the region last month. The road connects Gilgit division with Skardu, the main town in Baltistan division, which together with Gilgit is a major tourism, trekking and expedition hub in Gilgit–Baltistan. The mountainous terrain of the region, which includes four of the world’s 14 eight-thousand peaks, attracts tourists, trekkers and mountaineers from around the world.
Accessible from Skardu by road, the nearby Askole and Hushe are the main gateways to the snow-covered 8,000-meter (26,000-foot) peaks including K2, the Gasherbrums, Broad Peak, and the Trango Towers, and to the glaciers of Baltoro, Biafo and Trango. This makes Skardu the main tourist and mountaineering base in the area.
But the lack of a proper road has always hampered the development of tourism and trade in the area. Residents of the region have long been demanding the completion of JSR, which was initiated more than a decade ago. In the past few years, the Pakistan Army’s engineering organization, the Frontier Works Organization (FWO), has finally upgraded the road, widening parts of it and constructing others until it was finally opene last month.
