Karachi’s Public Transport

Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan has a major transport crisis. At independence in 1947 it had a fairly efficient public transport system. Since then, the State has made enormous investments to address its transport needs. Different models of public, private, and public-private partnerships were developed and implemented along with a railway system. Many of these initiatives met with considerable success to begin with, but ultimately fizzled out.

This book describes the pre-independence situation and subsequent initiatives while analysing the political, social, technical, and financial reasons for their failures and successes as well as the role of international financial institutions, and the judiciary. It also looks at the innovative responses of the informal private sector to the crisis, the pros and cons of present-day government planning, and the interests of various stakeholders in the transport drama that exists today.