KHOROG, January 28, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- If additional measures to regulate traffic along the highway Murgab-Khorog-Dushanbe are not taken in the near future the highway will be unsafe for traffic, according to the GBAO transportation service.   

Speaking to reporters in Khorog on January 27, the deputy head of the Pomirnaqliyot enterprise, Khoushnazar Abdurahimov, said that the road is damaged every year not only by numerous avalanches, mudslides, rockfalls and flooding but also “because its bed density is not fit for heavy trucks.”

In recent years, with opening of the automotive communication with China heavy trucks with total weight from 60 to 90 tons have become moving along the road.  According to specialists, these vehicles cause serious damage to the road.

“Last year alone, some 2,500 such heavy trucks moved along this highway, transporting some 65,000 tons of cargo,” Abdurahimov said, noting that bridges along the road that had been built in the Soviet time already are also in a poor state.

According to him, construction of a terminal for unloading heavy trucks in the Murgab district could also help solve the problem.