ANALYZING THE ROAD DEVELOPMENT IN PAKISTAN,THE EXISTING SITUATION OF ROADS.

 At the time of inception of Pakistan in 1947, the road situation was very precarious here. The total length of all kinds of roads at that time was 20,238 Km. in the country and out of which 8,130 Km. were the highways and remainder were non-metaled (Karachi) roads. The road mileage which was needed at the time' for transferring the people and goods were very few and they were also in very bad condition.In the light of this situation, a conference was convened  in 1949 at Karachi ,for chalking out the road development programme.During 19·1S· 35, a sum of Rs. 380 million was spent on construction of new roads due to which the length of metaled roads increased to 30,735 Km. During 1955-60

(The first Five Year Plan period), the length of roads increased to 30,885 Km. by spending Rs. 200 million.During the 3rd. Five Year Plan period, a sum of Rs. 595 million were spent on the construction of roads due to which the roads mileage increased to 35,008 and during the same period 2,900 Km. existing roads were repaired. Similarly, the :ontinued to develop till 2003.

Exiting SITUATION:

During 2003-04, the total length of roads in Pakistan 255,856 Km. out of which 157,975 Km. are highways 97,881 Km. are the common roads.
The total length of roads in 1990-91 was 170,823 Km. which increased to 256,168 Km in 2002-03 and 255,856 Km. in 2003-04. The totallength of high class roads was increased by 3.1 percent 2002-03 but length of common roads was decreased . per cent which means that common roads were converted into high class roads. This could be possible due to implementation of Khush Hal
 Pakistan Programme.During 1990-91 and 2003-04,annual increase in the road mileage in Pakistan can be shown by the table given below:
LENGTH OF ROADS IN PAKISTAN    
        Kilometers    
       
Financial Years   HIGHWAYS       COMMON ROADS              TOTAL LENGTH
                      length % change             length % change                length % change

1990-91       86,839         -          83,984     -                                170,823    
1991-92       95,374       9.8        87,335     4.0                             182,709      7.0
1992-93       99,083       3.7        90,238     3.3                             189,321      3.6
1993-94       104,001     5.0        92,816     2.9                             196,817      4.0
1994-95       111,307     7.0        96,338     3.8                             207,645      5.5
1995-96       118,428     6.4        99,917     3.7                             218,345      5.2
1996-97       126,117     6.5       103,478    3.6                             229,595      5.2
1997-98       133,462     5.8        107,423    3.8                            240,885      4.9
1998-99       137,552     2.9      110,132      2.5                            247,484       2.7
1999-00       138,200     0.6      110,140      0.0                            248,340       0.3
2000-01       144,652     4.7      105,320     -4.4                           294,972        0.7
2001-02       148,8n      2.9       102,784      -2.4                           251,661       0.7
2002-03       153,225     2.9      98,943-      -3.7                           252,168        0.2
2003-04       157,975     3.1      97,881       -1.1                           255,856        1.4
Ministry of Communications            

NATIONAL HIGHWAY AUTHORITY:

There are 18 highways connecting the provinces of Pakistan are called 'National Highways' including Motor way also. All these highways are under the control of National Highway Authority. The total length of the highwayunder NHA is 8,885 Km. These highways are just 3.5 per cent the total length of all types of roads in Pakistan but 90 per cent of commercial load of the country is borne by these highways. The success of Deep Sea port Gawadar depends on the connection of Northern Areas with this Port.
National Highway Authority aims at connecting the Gawadar Port to the lands of the country via Afghanistan and Khuzdar.