Karachi's neglected roads turn daily travel into an ordeal

Residents of Karachi's Gulistan-i-Jauhar neighborhood are enduring daily travel hardships as key access roads and internal streets have fallen into disrepair. The area, considered relatively upper-middle-class and experiencing continuous development, presents a stark contrast between growth and neglect.

University Road, a primary artery, is already heavily congested due to the prolonged construction of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line project. This forces commuters to rely on alternative routes, which are themselves in poor condition. Pehlwan Goth Road, a vital gateway for thousands, exemplifies the problem. What should be a 10-minute journey can stretch to 40 minutes due to extensive excavation for sewerage and water pipelines, narrowing the road and creating bottlenecks.

Further along Pehlwan Goth Road, the carriageway narrows drastically near a graveyard, allowing only one vehicle at a time. Beyond the Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station, the road surface is severely damaged, with deep potholes and uneven patches forcing vehicles to crawl at speeds as low as five kilometers per hour. One section outside a filling station has become impassable due to potholes, ongoing sewer line work, and stagnant water, making routine travel an exhausting ordeal.