The M-9 motorway or the Karachi–Hyderabad motorway (

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

: کراچی–حیدرآباد موٹروے) is a north–south

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

in the

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, connecting

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

. The six-lane road is 136 kilometres long, and caters to the commercial traffic originating from the

Karachi Port The Port of Karachi (, ''Bandar gāh Karāchī'') is one of South Asia's largest and busiest deep-water Port, seaports, handling about 60% of the nation's cargo (25 million tons per annum) located in Karachi, Pakistan. It is located on the Karac ...

and Port Qasim. Daily traffic count is around 30,000. The motorway is an upgrade of the old Super Highway. The Frontier Works Organization executed the project on a

build–operate–transfer Build–operate–transfer (BOT) or build–own–operate–transfer (BOOT) is a form of project delivery method, usually for large-scale infrastructure projects, wherein a private entity receives a concession (contract), concession from the public ...

basis for 25 years.

History

Motorways were first proposed in Pakistan by the government of former

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, first serving from 1990 to 1993, then ...

. Pakistan's first motorway, the 367 km six-lane M-2, was inaugurated in November 1997, making it the first motorway in

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

. On 11 March 2015, an inauguration ceremony was held for the M-9 Motorway with a planned completion date of August 2017. The six-lane, four-interchange road linking Karachi to Hyderabad was estimated to cost Rs. 36 billion. The interchanges at Dadabhai, Industrial Valley, Nooriabad, and Thana Bola Khan, were to enable

Tharparkar Tharparkar (Dhatki language, Dhatki/; , ), also known as Thar, is a district in Sindh province in Pakistan, headquartered at Mithi. Before Indian independence it was known as the Thar and Parkar (1901⁠–⁠1947) or Eastern Sindh Frontier Distr ...

, Jimphir, Keenjhar, and other areas to be connected as well. On 3 February 2017, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated a completed section of the motorway from Loni Kot to Lucky

toll plaza A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and maintenan ...

. At that time, about half part of the route (75 km out of 136 km) had been completed, with the other half having an expected completion date of March 2018. On 24 December 2020, a new

was inaugurated on the M-9. With 24 lanes (6 entry, 18 exit points), it is the largest toll plaza in Pakistan. In February 2022, the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

decided to further upgrade the motorway from six to eight lanes to cater to the high traffic volume.

Route

M-9 begins north of Karachi near the junction of the Karachi Northern Bypass (also known as M-10). The Karachi Northern Bypass and this road are connected via a

trumpet interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, usi ...

. After that, it leaves the city. Through a link road, it forms a junction with the N5 on a northeast track. The highway exits Karachi and enters the

Thar Desert The Thar Desert (), also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent that covers an area of in India and Pakistan. It is the world's 18th-largest desert, and the world's 9th-large ...

. Located outside the city of Hyderabad, the motorway ends at a

cloverleaf interchange A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange (road), interchange in which all turns are handled by slip roads. To go left (in right-hand traffic; reverse directions in left-driving regions), vehicles first continue as one road passe ...

in Kotri. Afterwards, it merges with the N-5.

Features

As with other motorways in Pakistan, speed limits of 80 km/h for heavy transport vehicles and 120 km/h for light transport vehicles are in place on M-9. For safety and to prevent unauthorised access, it features a central

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

and is fenced on the outside. Only fast-moving vehicles are allow to enter, therefore, vehicles that are slow-moving are not allowed, including pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, and animal-driven carriages. However, heavy motorbikes are used for patrolling purposes by the Pakistani National Highways & Motorways Police.

Issues with M-9 Motorway

* M-9 Motorway is an upgrade of the old Super Highway by FWO, responsible for build, operate, and transfer to NHA after 25 years. * Reconstruction quality is below national and international motorway standards. Key Issues: * Poor pavement quality; road surface is uneven at many locations. * Lacks proper service areas and amenities, unlike M-2, M-3, and M-5. * No service roads or fencing; local traffic merges directly from gas stations, hotels, etc. * Incomplete fencing allows pedestrian crossings and jaywalking. * Lane markings done with basic paint; no cat eyes or reflective markers installed.

New motorway between Karachi and Hyderabad is under consideration, NHA tells SHC

Karachi - Hyderabad Super Highway (160 km) was upgraded into M-9 motorway, the court has ordered the NHA to reconvert the M-9 into Superhighway. The NHA has also provided the details of the plans to make M-9 motorway on separate land alignment.As the NHA began responding through their legal representatives, they were questioned by the bench, consisting of Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Amjad Ali Sahito, concerning the NHA's decision to transform the already operational Superhighway into a motorway, as well as the reasoning behind not building a new motorway linking Karachi and Hyderabad. The bench was looking into roughly 70 petitions that were lodged during 2017 to 2021, predominantly concerning the M-9 motorway land conflicts. During the previous hearing, the SHC instructed the NHA to submit the boundary details for properties along the Karachi-Hyderabad motorway’s boundaries. Bench questions conversion of now defunct Superhighway into M-9 motorway. The NHA representative delivered the report to the court at the start of the meeting on Wednesday. The bench pointed out that there were already some filling stations and restaurants on the now defunct Superhighway. The argument was made over the procurement agreement between Sindh’s provincial government and NHA rex garding to land purchasing. According to one of the petitioners, there appears to be a conflict between the two levels of government sharing the same territory. The counsel asserted that no citizen's access to any thoroughfare can be impeded or restricted.

References