Karachi Tramway
September 23, 2007
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
Tramway Map of 1893

Steam Locomotion got Replaced with Horses:

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 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.
Karachi Tram Video:
Chronology of Karachi Tramway
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.
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.
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 Shirazi @ 8:00 AM,
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6 Comments:
- At 2:04 PM PKT, temporal said...
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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...
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wow.. i never knew these things existed in Pakistan :) Cool
- At 12:03 PM PKT, said...
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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...
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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, said...
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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, said...
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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.
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