The Karachi Port is the largest port in the country and one of South Asia's busiest.
Rail services in Pakistan are provided by the state-run
Pakistan Railways, under the supervision of the
Ministry of Railways. Pakistan Railways provides an important mode of transportation in Pakistan, catering to the large-scale movement of people and freight. The railway network comprises 8,163 km
[119] of which 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) (broad gauge) forms 7,718 km including 293 km of electrified track. Pakistan Railways carry 65 million passengers annually and daily operates 228 mail, express and passenger trains.
Pakistan Railways also operate special trains for various occasions. The Freight Business Unit with 12000 personnel operates over 200 freight stations on the railway network. Pakistan has also planned or had many Mass Transit Systems. The Karachi Circular Railway, which opened in the early 1940s, is the only functioning Mass Transit System in Pakistan as of date. In 1976, Karachi was slated to begin work on an underground metro system, but plans have been put on hold since. The
Lahore Metro is another proposal still in planning and is scheduled to be completed by 2020. Pakistan has been successful in foreign trade by rail. Pakistan has successfully traded with countries such as Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, India,
Turkmenistan and China.
[120]
During the 1990s, Pakistan began an ongoing project to rebuild all
national highways throughout the country specifically to important financial, cargo and textile centres. The
National Highway Authority or NHA is responsible for the maintenance of all national highways in Pakistan. The construction of motorways began in the early 1990s with the idea building a world class road network and to reduce the load off the heavily used national highways throughout the country. The first motorway to be completed was
M1 in 1997 from
Peshawar to
Islamabad. Later on, highways such as
M2 from
Islamabad to
Lahore,
M3 from Pindi Bhattian to
Faisalabad,
M9 from
Hyderabad to
Karachi,
Karachi Northern Bypass from
Hyderabad to
Karachi, and the
Lahore Ring Road[121] were completed.
The waterway network in Pakistan is in its infancy with Karachi being the only major city situated next to the Arabian Sea. Plans are being proposed for the development of the waterways in the country along the
Indus River and through the Punjab as it would boost employment opportunities and the economic and social development in Pakistan.
[122] Pakistan has an estimated 139 airports, 10 of them international.
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