Traveling on Grand Trunk Road all my life, it captured my imagination as a cultural curiosity when I read Rudyard Kipling’s Kim. At the beginning of the last century Kipling called it:
“a wonderful spectacle…. without crowding…. green-arched, shade-flecked … a river of life.â€
But Pakistan’s National Highway Number 5 (N5), alias the Grand Trunk Road, or simply the GT Road, presents a different impression now.
Commuting up and down the GT Road are caravans of trucks, buses, cars, animals and animal transport also auto-rickshaws, all having equal right of the way. On the GT Road every bus, truck, and a car must pass the vehicle ahead. “The GT Road,†a veteran traveler John Otto wrote says, “really belongs to the trucker.†And he is right in a way. Have you traveled there lately? Seen any changes?
Photo Credits: WesternRaider
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The G.T. road portion in India is much more broader now unlike in the past.It is full of cars,buses(HP roadways,Punjab Roadways,PEPSU roadways,Haryana Roadways,J&K Roadways, UP Pariwahan,Delhi UT roadways),redas,fruit stalls,Dhabas in thousands,Resorts,Hotels,bikes cyclewallahs,and above Tolls(Turnpikes).It appears entire Punjab and Haryana resides on this road.How is it in Pakistan
The stretch of GT Road I travelled the most on was between Hasanabdal and Pindi. This section had two constants: clouds of dust near Taxila (due to a hundred stone crushers) and a road under perpetual repair. I hope the situation has improved by now.
Rumi saheb. yes I remember the ‘tayyara’ buses of pre-AC pre- Daewoo days :) I also remember the red color buses of GTS. The GTS buses that plied on Lahore-Peshawar GT Road route were of blue color and they also came fitted with a sleeping berth towards the front :)
I remember traveling on GT road in my childhood and later. Ahh..what pleasant memories. Those were the pre-AC-bus days when Tayyara busses ruled the GT road. Buses, Trucks and Trees.. and that Full moon peeping from the window.. what a nostalgia.