BEFORE the commissioning of the M-1 motorway, the entire vehicular traffic load from Peshawar to Attock Bridge, the southern geographical limit of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), was handled through the Grand Trunk (GT) Road. With the commissioning of the M-1, a large number of vehicles switched over to that route. In the meantime, vehicular traffic on GT Road, too, increased in volume tremendously.

Fortunately, the planners had reserved sufficient land space on either side of GT Road for future expansion. Due to negligence of the Highway Department, the open spaces on both sides have been illegally occupied by encroachers and the road today stands narrowed down.

It can hardly allow two lanes for the vehicular load, which consists of giant trucks, 40-foot trailers, passenger buses, cars, motorcycles and animal-driven carts. With no safety fence existing, the GT Road, where business activities remain alive day and night, pedestrian criss-crossing is usual which results in accidents. Craters and patches on the road further make the GT Road journey hazardous.

Over the last about a dozen years, no attention has been paid by the provincial government to the task of improving the main traffic artery connecting Peshawar and the region’s southern geographical limit, which subsequently connects the province with the rest of the country.

Sayed G.B. Shah Bokhari
Peshawar

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2026