Means of Transportation in Pakistan

During my recent traveling to Africa and Asia, i have realized that the difference in means of transportations are very very visible in Africa, Asia and Europe. And they also reflect the economic situation of the country. Therefore i have decided to write about the modes of transportation that are common in Pakistan.

**Personal Transport**

From 90's till now a lot of things have changed in Pakistan with personal transport. In old times there were a lot of bicycles on the road. It was also not easy for the labor class to buy a bicyle. The most popuplar bicyle of all times in Pakistan as been Sohrab Bicyle. Later on some imported bicyles special mountian bikes joined the market and the prices of the bicyles went down. Here is a picture of best seller Sohrab

It was a luxury to have a motor cycle. A 70cc honda motor cycle has been the biggest seller in Pakistan and it was a symbol of being moderate rich. Very few people owned 125cc motor bikes. And heavy bikes over 300 cc were only in the reach of super rich people. In 21st century there were a lot of 50-125 cc motor cycles came in Pakistan. There are being imported from China in huge numbers and are being produced in Pakistan as well. Due to these bikes now almost all middle class families can afford to have a motor cycles. These motor cycles have replaced the cycles almost everywhere in the citicies. Now you rarely see bicyles and you can notice the motor cycles everywhere in Pakistan. Here is a picture of typical motor bike riders in Pakistan.

The next stage in personal transportation is cars. With the time a lot of Pakistanis are now able to buy a car as well. Almost every day a lot of new cars are coming to Pakistan. Before the market was owned by Japanese car manufacturers specially toyota, Honda and suzuki. Toyota corolla has been the biggest seller in Pakistan. After that Suzuki Mehran has its own place. Most of the corolla are assembled in Pakistan by Indus motors. In recent years a lot of cars has been imported from Japan as well. This year Volksvagen has decided to start its sales in Pakistan. That will bring a lot of change in the market.

Toyota corolla, the biggest seller in Pakistan among rich people

Also a big seller for medium class 

**Public Transport**

Public transport in Pakistan depends very much on the region where you are. Some cities has a very good public transport facilities and some still have a poor public transport. Let's start from the local taxis

The local taxis has been the cars that are very very old. They are typical old corolla or similar cars from that period.

Later on the government of Pakistan introduced some yellow cabs, there are many of them on the roads as well

From airports you can get some better taxis

In northern areas of Pakistans, you will find jeeps as taxis

In old times there were a lot of horse carriages for transportation for the people who can not afford taxis. They still exist in many cities in Pakistan

Later on these rides got the competitors. The Qinjqi dropped the cost of transport. Since they were very unsafe and a reason of a lot of accident. The government has put a ban on them in many cities. However you can see them in smaller cities

An alternate to taxis has also been Rikshaws. They are a reason for dropping the taxi fares. Now they are almost everywhere and most of the people can afford them.

Public buses are intersting in Pakistan. Most of the buses are made by either Japanese companies like Mazda or their joint ventures in Pakistan like HinoPak motors. Some bus owners decorate their buses a lot. Here is a picture of a medium size public transport bus

Here is a picture of large size public transport buses

Two citicies of Pakistan now have a large metro bus services. There is also a plan of metro trains the some cities. However these projects are very heavy budget projects.

**Intercity Public transport**

The most popular way of traveling between the cities are buses. Non air-conditioned coaches and air conditioned luxury coaches are two main catagories. Non air conditioned coaches look like this.

They are big, they are not so comfortable and they are fast. In the air conditioned catagories there are some popular brands, and there are some not so popular brands. Most of the buses are Japanese or Pakistan made Japanese buses. A few are korean buses named Daewoo.

The alternate to the bus services are railways. Pakistan railways has on and off days. Sometimes the train network become really good and after some years it becomes really bad depending upon the government policies for railways. In the trains catagories we have long distance trains that have economy class, Air conditioner class and business class coaches. And then we have small passenger trains that only have economy class. Here is a typical Pakistan railways train. The trains are normally cheaper than bus services

In the end we have some domestic airlines. Our national airline PIA is known for its poor services now. And then we have some competitors named Air Blue and Shaheen air. There is a lot of passenger that want to commute with airlines. But there are not enough airlines available at the moment. With time the air fares are becoming more affoardable.

Thanks for reading this post. I will try to write another blogg about the goods transport in Pakistan. Please feel free to drop a comment or your feedback.