90 years (1885-1975)

The Inaugural Ceremony

Tramway Map of 1893

Steam Locomotion got Replaced with Horses

The East India Tramway Company

The First Petrol Tram in the World -

There was a time when citizens of Pakistan were accustomed to seeing Trams running all over the Karachi City center. It was one of the most popular means of conveyance in the city center. Today, only a handful of photos, a few landmarks and memories of Trams remain.If you talk to any body who has seen Karachi up to, they will talk about the tramways in nostalgic terms. The network was closed down in 1975 after traffic congestion in Saddar area was causing lots of traffic accidents involving Trams as well as older trams were proving difficult to maintain. What happened to the rolling stock and infrastructure is anybody’s guess. I couldn’t find any information on it. Growing up in Karachi however, I remember taking rides in Trams with my father as well as seeing the left over tram tracks which were left to rust in Saddar roads untilThe history of Karachi tramway spansIt owes it origin to thewho first conceived the idea for a Karachi Tramway. Inof London submitted the tender for building this tramway network. It took untilto complete all the formalities and to get Government’s permission to use Steam as the locomotive power for the trams. Actual construction work started inTrackof Karachi Tramway wasOnthe first tram line in Karachi was opened for public traffic. The track extended from present day(then) bridge toThe tramway was needed for freight service as Karachi Port was not deep enough in those days. Ships were anchored at present day Kimari area and from there freight was brought to(Present day Jinnah Bridge/Native Jetty area) by small boats. For this purpose some tram rails were laid in the Godowns of., and others, and also along the jetty, so that grain might be transported directly from their warehouses to the boat’s side.In, steam powered trams got replaced by horse drived tramways. This was to the great satisfaction of city residents because the steam engines proved to be too noisy in the residential and commercial areas. The frequency of Steam trams was once every 15 minutes in busy areas and that made the residents quite uneasy because of the noise. After horse trams were introduced, Steam trams were relegated to shunting in depots only whereas light one-horse tram cars took their space on Karachi roads.The photo to the left is an earlier version of horse-driven Karachi tram which used two horses.Horse trams were much cheaper to operate as compared to the steam locomotives fired with coke. The coke had to be shipped from England at a great expense, as Karachi could not afford any supplies, and in Bombay local demands required the whole output of the gas works. Present day Sindh including the city of Karachi were under Bombay Presidency until 1912.To date, there are some remains of water troughs near Max Denso Hall area as well as in Saddar which were built to feed and provide water to the tram horses.Very soon the horse driven tramways became bigger than ever. Some of carriages were converted to light railways and the tramway started moving not only passengers but also freight across the city by using petrol engines. See Photo below. It is courtesy of Mr. Arshad Kazmi. It shows a petrol powered tram. The handwritten caption under the photo reads as:The company was now titled as. The chief engineer of the East India Tramway Company was, whose name was long known in Karachi in connection with the Karachi-Kotri railway line which was constructed under his supervision.