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Pakistan Chairlift Re-Built A Decade After Taliban Destroyed Original

Pakistan Chairlift Re-Built A Decade After Taliban Destroyed Original

Published : 02-Sep-2016 02:34



The former cricket star and current leading Pakistani Politician Imran Khan yesterday declare open a new double chairlift installed at Pakistan's Malan Jabba ski area.

The original chairlift at the centre, Pakistan's only fully commercial ski resort, was destroyed around 2007 by the Taliban when they took over the Swat Valley where it is located.

Locals had continued to ski at the centre since the Taliban were driven out of the region in 2009, hiking up the slope or making use of a makeshift, DIY lift until funding was secured to build the new lift at a reported cost of one billion rupees (£7m).

Imran Khan said the government was making efforts to increase tourism in the area, and plan to establish similar projects in feasible locations across the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

The new lift is 800 metres long and took only 53 days to erect.

The original Malam Jabba resort was built in the 1990s with help from the Austrian government who also donated the original chairlift.

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