Grand Trunk Road: What Are Your Memories?

Posted on September 12, 2009
Filed Under >S.A.J. Shirazi, Travel
12 Comments
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S.A.J. Shirazi

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.”

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

12 responses to “Grand Trunk Road: What Are Your Memories?”

  1. Suresh Mandan says:

    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

  2. Adnan says:

    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.

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