Introduction
All means which help in carrying people, animals and goods from one place to another are called means of transpotation or communication. These include roadways, railways, waterways and airways. Means of communication are of great importance for the development and stability of any country. The progress of the developed countries lies in the development of their means of communication.
In developing countries such as Pakistan, the lack of means of communication is a great hindrance in the way of economic development. To strengthern the defence of a country, to maintain peace, to maintain law and order and to help flourish science and art, it is necessary to improve and develop the means of communications. Means of communication are vital for establishing industries, taking the raw material to the factories and bringing the manufactured goods to the market. Availability of the means of communication helps the labour to move from one place to another. They help expand the market and help blossom the local and foreign trade. Moreover, mutual cooperation and social contact among the people increases through it. The developed means of communication, expand education and boost tourism. People can go from one place to the other easily for acquiring higher education. As these facilitate the movement of goods from one place to the other, the knowledge of market conditions becomes easily available, and the market prices become stable.
At the time of independence, the means of communication available with us were far less than our requirement and were highly unsatisfactory. The efforts of Government to improve the means of communication have borne fruit and the system has improved considerably.
Roads
Roads are significant because they link the centers of production with those of consumption. In a country like Pakistan where agriculture is the Mainstay of economy and where industries are growing rapidly, importance of roads cannot be over emphazised.
Road transport is very helpful for our economy because of large scale dispersal of agrucultural products. This is also comparatively cheaper and supplements the railways, airways and waterways. It is also renders door to door service to all and sundry.
In Pakistan there are both metalled and unmetalled roads. The government is endeavouring to have metalled roads and to maintained them properly. A network of large and small roads has been laid to strengthen the means of communication. The road network in Pakistan goes upto 120,000 km. comprising 57,000 km. black-topped and 63,000 km. of unmetalled roads. In addition to this, there are 65,000 km. of canal roads (canal paths) as well.
Better and more roads have boosted the use of mechanized transport i.e cars, buses, trucks and other vehicles which use mineral oil as fuel. The smoke emitted by these vehicles pollutes the atmosphere. Today we have 1,700,000 vehicles on our roads as against only 25,000 in 1947.
The smoke of vehicles and factories mixes with the general mist in the atmosphere and forms a barrier between the sun and the earth, depriving people of the sun rays. When people breathe this polluted air, it has a bad effect on their health. Moreover, this polluted mixture of harmful gasses is continuously eroding Ozone, a layer of benign gasses, which protects us from harmful radiation of sun. Many adverse efforts have already appeared.
Machines, trucks, motor vehicles, rickshaws and aeroplanes add noise in our atmosphere. This noise ruins the human peace of mind, and at times even effects their hearing. We must avoid such vehicles which emit extensive smoke and produce loud noise. Nowadays small size gadgets are available which can control the smoke in vehicles. We can use these gadgets to reduce smoke.
Some of the major roads of our country are mentioned below:
Shahrah-e-Pakistan (National Highway)
This is the largest and most important highway of our country. Its length is 1735 km. It connects the Karachi port with the interior of the country. This road is being given two lanes. The important goods meant form Afghanistan are also transported through this road. The big cities and the trade centers situated on this road are linked with other major and mior cities and trade centers through other highways and minor roads. Goods from the interior of the country also reach other parts of the country and abroad through this highway. This is the highway through which it is possible to reach Karachi upto Torkham and Peshawar. The part of this road which runs from Peshawar to Lahore, is called the Grand Trunk Road (G.T. Road).
Karachi-Quetta Highway Via Khuzdar
This is an important highway of our country. Its lenth is 4834 km. It joins the Karachi port with the far flung areas of Baluchistan. It has reduced the distance between Karachi and Quetta by 160 km. Commodities are transported to different parts of Baluchistan by this highway.
Karachi-Quetta Highway Via Jacobabad
This highway joins the big cities of Balochistan passing through differnt areas of Sindh. Its lenghs is 762 km. It runs along the right bank of river Indus but never crosses it. The fruits and other manufactured goods of Baluchistan, reach Punjab and other areas via this highway.
Quetta-Peshawar Highway
This highway joins the areas of N.W.F.P. and Balochistan with each other and its length is 535 km. It passes by Muslim Bagh, Qila Saifullah and Zhob in Balochistan and reaches Peshawar via Bannu and Kohat. It is very important for economy of the country.
Quetta-Multan Highway
This highway passing through Quetta, Muslim Bagh, Qila Saifullah, Loralai, Fort Munro and passing through Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffar Garh, reaches Multan in the Punjab where it joins with Karachi Lahore highway.
Attock-Multan Highway
This highway passes through Mianwali and goes from Multan to Attock via Khakkar.
R.C.D. Highway
This highway joins Pakistan with Iran and Turkey. It starts from Karachi and passing through Lasbela, Khuzdar, Qalat, Noshki and Nok Kundi in Pakistan, it leads to Iran and Turkey.
Karachi-Hyderabad Super Highway
This is the most important highway of Pakistan. It is wider than all other highways and its length is 170 km. and it is being two lanes. It has reduced the distance between Karachi and Hyderabad. Thousands of people travel on this road and thousands of tonnes of goods are transported through it everyday.
Peshawar-Karachi Highway
It is the second largest highway of Pakistan. The government is also renovating it and is making it a double lane road. The length of the double lane road would be 1220 km. This highway goes from Peshawar to Karachi via Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Kashmore, Shikarpur, Larkana, Dadu and Sehwan Sharif. Renovating of this road will reduce the distance between Karachi and Peshawar by 322 km. As this highway runs along the right band of river Indus and joins Peshawar with Karachi, it is also called the Indus Highway.
Karakoram Highway
This is a new highway which has been inauguranted recently. It joins Pakistan with China. It is also called Shahrah-e-Resham (The Silk Route).
Lahore-Islamabad Motorway Project
The Lahore-Islamabad Motorway was a very gigantic project and billions of rupees have been involved. This Motorway is of international standard and is very wide and carries 4 lanes. Its completion has revolutionize the economy of Pakistan because it is designed to handle international trade between Pakistan and five Central Asia Muslim Republics throuch Afghanistan. The international trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan will also get a fillip through this Motorway.
The Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway sectin is already being expended to make it a double carriage highway to enable it to handle the incrased lead of National and International trade.
Railways
Among the means of transportation and communication, railway system has a special significance. Passengers alongwith agricultural, industrial and other commodities are transported from one place to another. After the establishment of Pakistan, the Railway has played a very important role in development of the country. With the passage of time much improvement has been made in the railway system. Steam engines have been replaced by oil and diesel engines. The efficiency of railways has been improved by replacing rail tracks and carriages. At some places double rail tracks have been laid and narrow guage tracks have been replaced with broad guage tracks. Electric train is being run from Lahor to Khanewal. The expansion, renovatio and improvement in the facilities of train is also in progress.
Hundreds of bogies and diesel engines have been acquired. At the Mughalpura Workshoe, in Lahore, and at the workshop in Islamabad, the repair and renovation of trains is carried out in order to improve the Railway system. The total length of railway tracks in Paksitan is nearly 13,000 km. The Pakistan Railways has more than one thousand engines, more than 3,000 passenger bogies and about 37,000 freight cars.
The important railway routes of Pakistan are:
Peshawar-Karachi Via Rawalpindi Lahore
This is the biggest railway line of Pakistan. Starting from Peshawar it ends at Karachi. Its total length is 1672 km. This railway line joins the Karachi port with other major cities of the country. Important trade centers and many big cities of Pakistan are situated on this route, such as Peshawar, Nowshera, Khanwal, Multan, Lodhran, Bahawalpur, Khanpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Rohri, Khairpur, Nawabshah, Pad-Edan, Shahdadpur, Tando Adam, Hyderabad, Kotri, Karachi etc.
Karachi to Quetta Via Kotri, Larkana and Jacobabad
This railway line is also joins the Karachi port with the interior of Sindh and various cities of Balochistan and ends at Quetta. It begins at Karachi city and passes through Kotri, Sehwan Sharif, Dadu, Larkana, Habib Kot, Jacobabd, Sibi, Koalpur and finally ends at Quetta.
Quetta to Zahidan
A railway line from Quetta runs through Spezand, Noshki and Dalbandin and reaches Zahidan, a border city of Iran.
Rohri to Quetta
This is a diversion of the Peshawar to Karachi mainline, at Rohri. It goes to Sukkur, Jacobabad, Sibi, Koalpur and Quetta.
Multan to Jacobabad Via Dera Ghazi Khan
From Multan this railway line runs to Jacobabad via Muzaffar Garh, Kot Addoo, Dera Ghazi Khan and Kashmore, whereit joins the Karachi Quetta railway line.
Quetta-Zhob
A railway line runs from Quetta to Zhob through Bostan, Muslim Bagh and Qila Saifullah. From Bostan to Zhob it is a narrow guage line.
Quetta to Chaman
From Quetta a railway line running throuch Bostan and Sheela Bagh goes upto Chaman via Khojak Pass. It passes through one of the longest tunnels of the world, which crosses Khojak mountain.
Sibi to Khost
From Sibi a railway line goes to Khost via Spin Tangi, Bahar Kutch and Hernai.
In addition to the above mentioned railway lines, Peshawar and Multan via Attock, Kundian, Mari Indus and Lala Musa via Sargodha, Khanewal are also connected through railways. Similarly from Hyderabad via Mirpur Khas to Khokharapar, Mirpur Khas to Nawabshah, Mirpur Khas to Mirpur Khas via Pathoro-Jhudo (loop line).
Airways
Air transport is given a lot of importance in the world. In Pakistan too, it has its importance, it is essential to have air communication for maintaining and improving relations with other countries. Access to some areas of our country is only possible through airways. Keeping in view the growing industrial and commercial requirements of the country, it is necessary to develop quick and speedy means of communication. When Pakistan was established, there was only one air line namely Orient Airways. Pakistan International Airways was established in 1955. Now known as Pakistan International Airlines (P.I.A) . It has progressed very rapidly and has set a network of flights inside and outside the country. Its Boeing Cessna and Foker planes are means of transportation between differnt cities within the country. The cities connected to the domestic flighs network are: Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Moen-jo-Daro, Jacobabad, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Mianwali, Dera Ismail Khan, Gilgit, Shardu, Chitral, Pasni, Gawadar, Jiwani and Turbat. Due to Privatiztion policy of the government it has been decided to allow private air companies to fly within domestic and international routes. The Government of Pakistan is constructing many new airports at different places, so that airlink may be established between more and more areas. Moreover, the present airports are also being improved so that bigger aeroplanes may easily and there and passenges may be provided with more travel facilities.
On international flights network, Pakistan is linked with U.S.A., U.K., German Republic, Italy, Japan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Suadi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, China, India, Nepal, SriLanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
