MUZAFFARABAD: A newlywed couple died after their motorcycle was hit by an excavator on an under-construction road on Sunday, police and witnesses said.

The couple were from the Batmang village north of Muzaffarabad, and were said to have been recently married.

Mohammad Azhar, 30, and his wife Khalida Bibi, 25, were travelling to the Pirchinasi hill resort. The accident occurred at around 11:30am near Upper Botha, where a hydraulic excavator was cutting the mountain to widen the road.

No precautionary measures had been taken by the contractor to guide traffic coming from both sides in accordance with the mandatory requirements for such construction, Station House Officer(SHO)RashidHabib Masoodi told Dawn.

The 23 kilometre Pirchinasi road is being upgraded under a contract awarded by the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council to Sardar Mukhtar Abbasi in early 2015. Mr Abbasi became a member of the AJK Council as a joint candidate from the Muslim Conference and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in March last year.

Early this year, the contractor had pledged that the project would be completed by April 2017, but a local official said the project may not be completed before July.

The accident occurred while the motorcycle was driving past the excavator on the narrow road and the excavator changed its position, causing its bucket to strike the motorcycle.

The couple did not fall on the road but instead rolled some 200 feet down the slope of a mountain into a dish. Azhar died on the spot, while Khalida died at a hospital, SHO Masoodi told Dawn. The machine operator and his helper fled the scene of the accident.

Staff Correspondent