By Amer Ahmed Khan BBC News, Neelum valley, Pakistan-administered Kashmir

Unless traffic is restored, life is a hard trek

The BBC has gained access to one of the most inaccessible areas hit by the South Asian earthquake. This is the first in a series of reports from the Neelum valley.

It is hard for outsiders to imagine just how dependent the mountain people of the Neelum valley are on roads.

This 206km-long Himalayan gorge with an estimated 160,000 inhabitants has been cut off from the rest of Pakistani-administered Kashmir since the 8 October earthquake.

Massive landslides at the valley entrance have made it completely dependent on helicopters for supplies.

Military engineers have managed to cut a path that jeeps can use. But goods vehicles still cannot get through.

On 13 November, the road from the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, Muzaffarabad to the first big town in Neelum valley, Pattika was declared open.

But within seven hours of the announcement, eight people were dead and were 22 injured when their jeep fell into the river below.

The next day, another jeep went the same way, killing five and injuring more than a dozen.

Sorties

Military commanders in charge of relief operations in Muzaffarabad and the Neelum Valley hurriedly called for additional helicopter sorties to deal with the valley's serious food shortages.

On 15 November, an unprecedented 10 sorties were made by US Chinooks to the military base of Dhanni - the main relief distribution centre about 35 miles into the valley.

But locals say their lives still cannot return to any kind of normality until the roads reopen.

The biggest problems come beyond the market town of Nauseri .

Almost half a mountain that used to be mined for marble has collapsed.

Military officials say they need specialised heavy equipment to cut a new road through the steep wall of marble left behind by the landslide.

With winter around the corner, there is little chance of any work starting on the road until summer next year.

On the other side of the mountain is Athmuqam - from where one can look into Indian-administered Kashmir.

Sling operation

Prior to the quake, Athmuqam featured in the news only when there was tension between India and Pakistan.

Taking away a body after a jeep crash

In such times, locals were forced to take a treacherous alternate route over the mountain tops as Indian firing would bring traffic on the regular route to a standstill.

The alternate route is called the Leswa Bypass, a narrow winding path that skirts mountain tops for most of the way.

The bypass has also been badly damaged by the earthquake.

At Nauseri, one can constantly hear the blasting going on across the mountains towards Leswa, as civil engineers try to work their way through some of the rockiest terrain in the valley.

The going is so difficult that engineers had to call on a Russian MI26 last week- the largest cargo helicopter in the world - to airdrop a 15 ton bulldozer to help them.

Destroyed power cables litter the Deolian-Nauseri road

After much head-scratching, the bulldozer was eventually carried on a giant sling made from cables.

Senior military officials describe it as one of the bravest operations in the relief effort.

Russian pilots seem to have earned deep admiration from their Pakistani counterparts "because of their willingness to undertake and execute impossible missions".

Despite the heroics, it may be at least one more month before the bypass becomes accessible to jeeps and relief goods can reach Athmuqam by road.

Indian help

Tourism minister Mufti Munib - among the few members of the state cabinet who stayed in the area after the quake - describes the situation as "extremely bleak".

"At least 24 of the 88 villages in the Athmuqam region are completely cut off," he says.

The mountain ridge along which the Leswa Bypass is being built

"About 40,000 people are in peril here as the winter approaches."

This is also the area where one of the five crossings across the Line of Control (LoC) between the Indian and Pakistani sides of Kashmir have been opened in the Tithwal sector.

Locals who have trekked to Muzaffarabad to bring back food say it is far easier for them to seek relief from the new crossing point across the LoC.

But the "opening" has so far proven to be merely symbolic.

Vehicles are not allowed to cross.

Relief goods can only be formally "exchanged" between officials on the two sides and not passed directly to the affected people.

The procedures for actually crossing the border take weeks.

Few among the 40,000-odd struggling to secure a daily meal have the time to go through the red tape.

There may be a glut of relief agency workers in Muzaffarabad. But in the Neelum valley only a small number have made it in by air.

And most of those are involved in medical relief rather than improving food supplies.