Recently, a 129-year-old tunnel built in the British era was discovered in Pakistan’s northwestern mountainous region, the Dispatch News Desk (DND) news agency reported.
The ‘Moto Tunnel’ was built in 1891 by the British rulers in Ayubia National Park, an area in the Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The 240-feet long tunnel is made of stones and mud with walking tracks on its both sides, and has a height of six feet and a width of four feet.
Built beneath the road, the tunnel primarily aimed at resolving the water issue of the sorrounding areas; therefore it contained pipelines to transfer water from Dhonga Gali to Murree.
However, it remained under a pile of garbage for decades before it was discovered, renovated, and restored to its glory.
The ‘Moto Tunnel’ links Ayubia with Donga Galli thus shortening the distance between Nathia Gali and Murree, two mountainous resort towns north of the Capital Islamabad.
While inaugurating the reopening of the historical ‘Moto Tunnel’ on October 29, 2020, the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam said that it’s a historical and archaeological tourist attraction in the picturesque and biodiversity-rich Ayubia National Park.
Malik Amin Aslam said that earlier there was a four-kilometer pipeline track from Dhonga Gali to the Tunnel in Ayubia National Park but now that has been further extended by 12 kilometers.
The Special Assistant said that the government is taking all-out measures to usher in sustainable models of eco-tourism in consultation with local partners and communities as a part of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision for Clean and Green Pakistan.
The historic #MottoTunnel built in 1891 but buried in filth and waste has been meticulously recovered and restored by @ClimateChangePK to its original glory. Will prove to be a model of #EcoTourism in #AyubiaNP #KP extending the #nature pipeline track (4km) by another 10 km pic.twitter.com/AFQEbRmmS7
— Malik Amin Aslam (@aminattock) October 29, 2020
