To write about 1950s Karachi, I cycled along the route of MTC tramway. Bandar Road was the main spine & rightfully so. How would the domes & spires of grand public buildings, like Municipal Hall, not instill a sense of civic pride? From Eidgah, you can see as far as the port.
The colonial, mercantilist Karachi lives on at Napier Rd, around the bend at Nigar Cinema, & up the length of Lawrence/Nishtar Rd. Trading houses. Steel warehouses. Timber Market. Bhimpura. Ramswamy. This line went all the way up to Gandhi Garden.
The leafy Parsi Colony sandwiched between Holy Family Hospital & Bandar Rd is really the early 20th century bedroom Karachi frozen in time. Served by the Soldier Bazar tram then, and the Green Line soon. Preserving some of this is imperative. Bonus: got chased by dogs.
The Frere Road tram brought people from Cantt to Saddar, past this holy trinity of United. Hotels dot this road. All have seen better days.
The tram network was shut down in 1975, right about the time these brutalist buildings probably propped up on Clerk St. Was it because of the surging popularity of the Circular Railway? Did people not need to go from Cantt to Saddar to Garden & down Bunder Rd to Kemari anymore?
I'm a realist, not a revivalist. Cities are living organisms & they evolve. Elphi/Zebunnisa will never revive its glory unless it becomes an easy destination to get to for millions. Without a new, robust & ambitious city-wide mass transit system, Saddar will continue to decay.
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