Light Within: Karachi Tramway

Karachi Tramway
Sunday, 23 September 2007

Owais Mughal

There was a time when citizens of Pakistan were accustomed to seeing Trams running all over the Karachi City center. It was one of the most popular means of conveyance in the city center. Today, only a handful of photos, a few landmarks and memories of Trams remain.

If you talk to any body who has seen Karachi up to 1975, they will talk about the tramways in nostalgic terms. The network was closed down in 1975 after traffic congestion in Saddar area was causing lots of traffic accidents involving Trams as well as older trams were proving difficult to maintain. What happened to the rolling stock and infrastructure is anybody’s guess. I couldn’t find any information on it. Growing up in Karachi however, I remember taking rides in Trams with my father as well as seeing the left over tram tracks which were left to rust in Saddar roads until 1980s.

The history of Karachi tramway spans 90 years (1885-1975). It owes it origin to the Municipal Secretary and Engineer, James Strachan who first conceived the idea for a Karachi Tramway. In 1881, Mr. Edward Mathews of London submitted the tender for building this tramway network. It took until 1883 to complete all the formalities and to get Government’s permission to use Steam as the locomotive power for the trams. Actual construction work started in October 1884.

The Inaugural Ceremony

On April 10, 1885 the first tram line in Karachi was opened for public traffic. The track extended from present day Jinnah (then Napier Mole) bridge to Kimari. An imposing ceremony was held on this occasion. The dignitaries who attended the ceremony included Commissioner Sindh, Henry Napier B Erskine, Commanding Officer of Sindh District, Brigadier General G. Luck and his daughter, Assistant Commissioner Dr. J. Pollen and His Highness Prince Shere Ali Khan, ex-Wali of Kandhar, Afghanistan, with his staff. All these people were transported to Kimari and then back to Scotch Church on a convoy of Steam Locomotives and using the tramway track which they were going to inaugurate. The marquees of the project had been erected at the Scotch Church. Refreshments were given to the attendees here and Commissioner Sindh in his speech pointed out that Karachi Tramway was the “first steam tramway in Western India.” He also pointed out that the tramway was going to be used for passenger as well as freight service.

The tramway was needed for freight service as Karachi Port was not deep enough in those days. Ships were anchored at present day Kimari area and from there freight was brought to Merewether Pier (Present day Jinnah Bridge/Native Jetty area) by small boats. For this purpose some tram rails were laid in the Godowns of Messrs. Ralli Bros. A. McHinh & Co., Volkart Bros., and others, and also along the jetty, so that grain might be transported directly from their warehouses to the boat’s side.

Tramway Map of 1893

The Map below shows Karachi of 1893. The Red rectangle towards left shows the first tramway track that was inaugurated. Also note how Karachi landscape has changed since then. Kimari is now part of the mainland as sea has receded a lot as well as land reclamation that has happened in the last 100 years. See where ‘bridge’ is written on a railway line towards bottom. This is where present day Boat-Basin is located.

Steam Locomotion got Replaced with Horses:

In 1886, steam powered trams got replaced by horse drived tramways. This was to the great satisfaction of city residents because the steam engines proved to be too noisy in the residential and commercial areas. The frequency of Steam trams was once every 15 minutes in busy areas and that made the residents quite uneasy because of the noise. After horse trams were introduced, Steam trams were relegated to shunting in depots only whereas light one-horse tram cars took their space on Karachi roads.

The photo to the left is an earlier version of horse-driven Karachi tram which used two horses.

Horse trams were much cheaper to operate as compared to the steam locomotives fired with coke. The coke had to be shipped from England at a great expense, as Karachi could not afford any supplies, and in Bombay local demands required the whole output of the gas works. Present day Sindh including the city of Karachi were under Bombay Presidency until 1912.

To date, there are some remains of water troughs near Max Denso Hall area as well as in Saddar which were built to feed and provide water to the tram horses.

The East India Tramway Company

Very soon the horse driven tramways became bigger than ever. Some of carriages were converted to light railways and the tramway started moving not only passengers but also freight across the city by using petrol engines. The company was now titled as ‘The East India Tramways Company’. The chief engineer of the East India Tramway Company was John Brunton, whose name was long known in Karachi in connection with the Karachi-Kotri railway line which was constructed under his supervision.

The permanent way materials for the Karachi tram network was supplied by Messrs. Bolling and Lowe of London. The weight of the rails used in the tramway was 70 lb(32 kg) to the yard. The engines of the tramway were supplied by Messrs. Kitson and Co. of Leeds, the rolling-stock was supplied by the Starbuck Car and Wagon Company, of Birkenhead and the contractors who carried out the construction work were Messrs. Mathews and Crawford.

The photo below shows a section of the tram tracks laid on Bundar Road (now called Mohammad Ali Jinnah Road) near Max Denso Hall area. This photo is circa 1900.

The career of Karachi tramway for freight business was short lived. Regular Railways took over the frieght business on the route from Napier Mole Bridge (now Jinnah Bridge) to Kimari.

Here is a short 50 second video on Karachi Tramway which I made by combining the photos that I have available as well as a short video clip

Chronology of Karachi Tramway

1879: John Brunton devised a special grooved bridge rail of inverted U-shape for four foot gauge horse to be later used in the tramways in Karachi.

1881: Karachi’s Municipal Secretary and Engineer, Mr. James Strachan conceived the idea of Karachi Tramway around this year and Mr Edward Mathews, of London tendered for the construction of the line in 1881.

1883: Detailed plan for Karachi Tramway is made and settled. Permission is obtained from the Government for the use of steam powered trams in Karachi.

October 1884: Work starts on the construction of Karachi Tramway.

April 10, 1885: Steam Tramway was opened in Karachi.

1886: Steam tramway of Karachi got replaced by horse-drawn tramway.

March 23, 1905: Petrol Tram was inaugurated in Karachi.

1909: Horse drawn tramway of Karachi got shut down and was replaced by Petrol driven trams. Petrol trams had a capacity of 46 passengers each and could run up to speeds of 18 mph. Tracks were re laid for petrol driven trams.

1913: By the end of this year, the number of Petrol run trams in Karachi was 37

1955: The number of Petrol Run Trams in Karachi had risen up to 64.

circa 1955: The tram company was bought by a Karachi resident Mr. Sheikh Mohammad Ali. Thereafter it was called Mohammed Ali Tramway Company (MTC). MTC continued to operate the trams until its final closure in 1975.

April 30, 1975: Karachi Tramway got closed down

References:

(1) Kurrachee, Past, Present, Volume II and Future by Alexander F. Baillie

(2) Karachi Travel Guide, 2000 by Yasmeen Lari

(3) PTV Drama: Mirza Ghalib Bandar Road Par

(4) Title Photo is from www.harrapa.com

posted by S A J Shirazi @ Sunday, September 23, 2007,

8 Comments:

At 2:04 PM PKT, temporal said...: a very enjoyable trip down memory ville

muhammadli tramways company fell victim to lack of foresight and planning...bad management!

trams or as we call them here 'street cars' are alive and functioning in T.O. ...and a few other metropolitan cities..san francisco, kolkata etc.
At 8:29 PM PKT, (¯`•._.•[Raaji]•._.•´¯) said...: wow.. i never knew these things existed in Pakistan :) Cool
At 12:03 PM PKT, Anonymous said...: Hi dude, Was just going through your blog and saw thes pics and a little history that you mentioned. the trams were wonderful i think. the same was in Bombay. Thanks again- An Indian
At 9:08 PM PKT, Emptyhead said...: Dear,
I'm the content editor of a hindi newspaper website (www.bhaskar.com) in india. will you please permit us to publish this post with your credit on our website and in newspaper. Would you like to write for us in english or in hindi (as you wish) for our new column pakistan diary.
my personal mail Id is ajay971@gmail.com. Please get back to me.
Thanks & Regards
Ajay Sharma
At 7:58 PM PKT, Neil Halliday said...: Thank you for a very well written and researched history of this topic. From the time when I was 5 years old I have known that there used to be diesel trams in Karachi. In 1974, when I was 4, my khala visited me in England and promised to take me on one of these trams when my family and I visited her the next year. I arrived in November 1975 only to be told that they were gone. It was my first (but sadly not my last) direct experience with the running down of public transport throughout the world.

Long live the tram.
At 2:42 AM PKT, Sabih said...: I remember being on board with my my dad as a little child in 60's on these trams. It was wonderful experience of travelling in a vehicle with no doors and windows often very chilly in winter but it was a fascinating experience. I also remember that I was very upset when this service was halted in 70's. For a long time, tracks were left there on the road near Cantt. Public school and I was hopeful that one day they will reopen the line, till they decided to recarpeted the roads and with that their last mark was also removed.
At 4:22 AM PKT, Anonymous said...: hi i am muhammad afzal i want to say karachi really nice and beautiful city i like to much i never thanig this my have a so nice city god must take good care my contry and all muslim kudah hafiz afzal
At 3:34 PM PKT, Anonymous said...: I love your blog! You will be in our prayers and thoughts!

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