Panjgur, a predominant rural district, is connected with other parts of the province and the country by air and road. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has daily flights from and to different destinations. Although black top roads are only 58 kilometres long, shingle roads connect the district to other cities of the country. Buses ply daily to and from Karachi, Quetta, Turbat, Khuzdar, Kharan, and some other cities. These roads are difficult to travel during rains. As the roads cross small streams and flood channels without any bridge, the traffic has to wait till the lowering of the water level.

The total length of roads within the district is 1,655 kilometres out of which only 58 kilometres is metalled (black top). All these roads were constructed and are maintained by the provincial Buildings and Roads (B&R) Division of the Communications and Works (C&W) Department. At present the B&R Division has 3 motor graders, 2 dozers, 3 road rollers, one tractor and one dump truck out of which only one motor grader is in working condition. All other machines need either minor or major repair. A program of "farm to market roads" has been started by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under which roads from Panjgur to Hoshab and Gowargo have been surveyed. Unavailability, and sometimes improper utilisation, of development budget and highly unfavourable cost-benefit analysis are two major factors behind this little length of metalled roads.

Unavailability of black top roads in the district has hampered the transportation and, consequently, trade activities. Due to high maintenance cost of the vehicles, transporters demand for high fare which further affects the costs. Some areas do not even have shingle roads, hence agriculture products cannot be marketed.

Any exact data on transport in Panjgur is hard to find as no private motor vehicle owner gets his vehicle registered in the district. Only the government vehicles are registered or some vehicles are registered in other districts. Most of the vehicles are illegally imported from Gulf states via transit trade facility to Afghanistan and are re-imported illegally to Pakistan without paying any duty. These automobiles do not have any documentation, hence, are available at a relatively lesser price. The same is the case with motorcycles. None of the motorcycles has a registration number. Many of them are illegally imported from Iran. The authorities responsible for registration of automobiles and collection of revenue from the owners seem quite careless regarding this issue. Some vehicles on the road have fake number plates, but no authority checks them.

A limited number of buses ply from and to Panjgur for other parts of the province. Due to unavailability of metalled roads the journey from Panjgur to Karachi takes about 24 hours while it is about 20-22 hours from Quetta to Panjgur. Daily 2 coaches, from each side, ply between Karachi and Panjgur, 3-4 between Quetta and Panjgur, one between Khuzdar and Panjgur and one between Kharan and Panjgur, which takes about 10-11 hours. A few pickups also ply daily between Panjgur and Turbat and for some other destinations. Panjgur is a cluster of about a dozen villages and no public transport is available for travel between these villages. Most of the residents use motorcycles for inter-village travelling.

The district has no railways. The national flag-carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) operates 16 flights per week to connect Panjgur to Karachi, Quetta, Turbat, Gwadar, and Pasni.

The district is out of the Pakistan Television’s transmission range. The television owners watch satellite-received television programmes. No body pays Ptv licence fee, as there is no Ptv transmission. Therefore no record about the number of television sets is available. However, as per estimate, in Chitkan every sixth household owns a television set and a satellite receiver.

Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (Radio Pakistan) has one broadcasting station of 0.25 K.W., M.W. at Turbat. This station was inaugurated on January 4, 1981 and daily transmit programmes for about five hours (1800-2310). It broadcasts in Urdu (3 hours) and Balochi (2 hours) while radio stations at Quetta and Khuzdar also transmit programmes in Balochi which can be listened to in Panjgur district. Because people do not bother to pay radio licence fee, no data are available about the total number of radio sets in the district.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has provided a telephone network to many villages of Panjgur. The first ever telephone exchange was established at Chitkan with 30 connections which was enhanced to a capacity of 400 lines in 1987. It was upgraded as a nation wide dialling (NWD) exchange with a capacity of 2,000 lines and now another digital exchange of 2,000 lines is under construction at Chitkan. At present there are 3 digital telephone exchanges in Panjgur district with a capacity of 1,300 lines at Tasp, 1,000 lines at Gramkan, and 1,000 lines at Isai. Other exchanges are located at Rainagor and Bonistan with 50 lines each and at Parome with 30 lines while telephone exchange at Kalag has a capacity of 100 connections and another 100 lines’ digital exchange has been sanctioned for Kalag. The total number of telephone connections in the whole district are 2,571. Eighteen villages have telephone link through microwave public call offices. Although there are 8 private call offices in Chitkan, no public call office is there. However, one Customer Service Centre is ready to be opened which will provide all the telecommunication facilities to the public. Telegraphic and facsimile services, promoted by the Pakistan Telecommunication Company, are also available in the district but internet and e-mail services are not yet available.

Contrary to other government departments, the PTCL staff was satisfied with the revenue collection. There was no complaint about defaulters. Many applications were pending, waiting for completion of cable networking process.

In Panjgur district, the Pakistan Postal Services Corporation has established one post office at Chitkan, one sub post office at Tasp, and 8 branch post offices at Washbood, Khanzangi, Gichk, Parome, Gramkan, Kohbun, Sordo and Katagari. Although not very regular, door to door a delivery mechanism is present and mail is delivered throughout the district. Mail reaches Panjgur by air as well as by road but delayed delivery of mail is a common complaint. Special mail services are not yet available at Panjgur; 54 post boxes are available at the post office for the public.

 The sole courier service (TCS), which started in 1995, is available at the district headquarters, i.e., Chitkan only.

In Panjgur, commercial banking services are provided by Habib Bank Limited (HBL), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), United Bank Limited (UBL), Allied Bank Limited (ABL), and Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB), while Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) provides credit services for the farmers. Habib Bank has two branches in the district, one branch at Chitkan and one at Tasp. The principal business of the banks in Panjgur is remittance of money which comes from Gulf states; lending of money from the banks is also common among the business community.

 The Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan was established in the district in 1981 to provide loans to farmers for agricultural development. A pre-appraisal is prepared for lending by a Mobile Credit Officer, who after a detailed visit prepares the financial appraisal. After financing, the bank keeps track of its investment and an evaluation of loan utilisation is made. Usually agricultural land is mortgaged and a loan up to 66 percent of its value can be provided on which 14.5 percent mark-up is charged. Sometimes personal guarantee is also acceptable if the loan demanded is up to 30 thousand rupees. In 1995-96, a sum of rupees 10.84 million was issued to 56 borrowers. In the financial year 1993-94, lending to the farmers amounted to rupees 14.9 million and in 1994-95 this amount was rupees 34.412 million. Recovery rate has been 80-90 percent up to 1989 after which it started declining and in June 1996 it was 46 percent only. According to the bank officials, the main reasons behind default include a decline in income from Gulf states and no rainfall for the last two years, which has severely affected rain dependent crops.

 The Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan has introduced many schemes some of which have been abandoned. The bank has financed installation of tubewells in Gichk, Parome, and Dasht-e-Shahbaz and as a consequence irrigated area under cultivation has increased. Tractors and pick-ups were provided to the farmers for cultivation and marketing. A total of 26 tractors were provided to the farmers at 12 percent interest rate under the Awami Tractor Scheme. The bank has also financed the development of dairy farms and out of three, two loans have been repaid. Any type of agriculture based industry can be financed under the bank’s manifesto. Lending can also be made for seeds, fertilisers, and agricultural machinery. The bank has appointed 3 Mobile Credit Officers in Panjgur district for providing credit facilities to the farmers.

The first time the district was provided electricity was in 1967, when about 700 kilowatts (kW) of power generation was started with 4 Taiyo diesel operated generators, installed at Chitkan by Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA). Two Siemens generators, also diesel operated, were added in 1968. All 6 engines broke down and were replaced by 6 Chinese Low-speed Diesel Oil (LDO) operated power generators in 1978. Each of these generators had the capacity to produce 500 kW of electricity. At present only 4 of these engines are in working condition as two of them went out of order in 1992. Meanwhile two Rustin Pexman generators, each having a capacity of 1,000 kW, were shifted here from Mangla Dam in 1987, but worked only for a few months. At present the four Chinese generators produce a maximum of 1,600-1,700 kW, while they are capable of producing 2,000 kW of electricity. At day time 3 generators are used while at night all four generators are operated. Presently, total length of high transmission line is 32.8 kilometres and that of low transmission line is 15.2 kilometres. There are 28 transformers with a total capacity of 6,390 kilo-volt-ampere (kVA).

 The main reasons behind the generators’ break down and their operation on low level include unavailability of spare parts, the incompatibility of generators to meet climatic conditions in Panjgur, and the hierarchical process of approval and provision of spare parts and accessories. For example when Chinese generators were installed, it was recommended on the very first day, that they should not be run on full capacity. Radiators of these generators were not capable to provide cooling in dazzling heat of Panjgur. Therefore the radiators stopped working after a few months. Afterwards they were modified to accommodate the climate of Panjgur. Two of these generators are out of order since 1992 but spare parts have not yet been provided.

 Electricity is supplied in the district for limited hours. Only Chitkan town is provided daily for eleven hours (from 11.00 hours to 16.00 hours and from 18.00 hours to 24.00 hours). Other villages are provided electricity on the same timings, but every third day only. At present electricity has been provided to 2,192 consumers out of which 1,760 are domestic connections and 426 commercial; 3 connections are heavy load connections. Only three 3-phase connections are given for agricultural purposes. There has been a problem of non-payment of bills but now WAPDA officials disconnect the transformer in case payment of bills has not been made by the electricity consumers in that area. In this way the problem of non-payment has been solved to some extent. Government departments and organisations are not regular in the payment of bills as they pay whenever they have an amount available in their budget. The overall realisation of the assessed revenue from Panjgur district is about 50 percent.

 The total estimated requirement of the area is 3 megawatts (MW) of electricity which can be provided in 1997 after the completion of development work for electricity provision to Panjgur. A high tension 132 kV transmission line from Turbat to Panjgur via Hoshab and a 132 kV grid station at Panjgur are under construction. After completion of this work Panjgur will be connected to Pasni power station, via Turbat, which is presently of 17 MW capacity. The pace of construction work is slow due to delayed release of funds from the government. Panjgur is planned to be connected to the national grid from Besima whenever the funds are available.

 Panjgur does not have access to gas pipeline supply. However liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is available in cylinders for cooking. It is supplied by the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Wakgas through their agencies in the district. Some proportion of gas cylinders is illegally imported from Iran. One cylinder of 10-11 kg of LPG supplied by Pakistani companies costs 270 rupees while an Iranian cylinder of 7-8 kg costs 220-230 rupees. LPG is also available through refilling in smaller cylinders of 2 kg for 65 rupees. Although LPG is a bit costly as compared to the other energy sources, its consumption is increasing. At present, two agencies of SSGC sell about 1,000 cylinders per month while Wakgas agency sells about 1,500 cylinders every month. The consumption of Iranian gas is not measurable as many shops are selling refilled and Iranian cylinders because there is no check on refilling and selling of LPG. The price of LPG is a bit higher in Panjgur. One stated reason is that the fare of one truck load is 1,500 rupees while SSGC issues a limited quantity of cylinders. In this way the price per cylinder increases to 270 rupees.

There are only 2 rest houses in the district managed by the provincial B&R division. One at Chitkan with 6 bedrooms with a capacity of 16 persons and another at Gichk with a capacity of 4 persons. The rest house at Chitkan is facilitated with electricity and hot/cold water.

Most of the economic infrastructure and communications are developed and managed by government, either federal or provincial. The private sector is involved in transport and banking only. All the public sector banks are far behind the private sector banks, either the client service or recovery of loans is concerned.

Panjgur is connected to other cities by road and air, though the length of black top roads is only 58 kilometres. Development of any area is hard to be imagined without roads therefore it may be imperative to construct more metalled roads and link farms to markets by more shingle roads. PIA operates flights to and from Panjgur but travel by air is expensive for the common people. Moreover unavailability of seats in flights is a common complaint despite the fact that often the planes fly with half of the seats vacant.

 Presently, the district is out-ranged for Ptv transmission. Human resource mobilisation can only be made possible through Education, Awareness, and Communication, for which television is an effective medium. Ptv can play a very positive role in change of attitudes, e.g. with regard to family planning.

 The district is well linked through telephone and mail, though delays in mail delivery is a common complaint. Postal services need to be improved. Commercial banks are functioning satisfactorily however the crucial role of the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan demands a broader mandate to serve the agriculture based economy of the district. Moreover, credit facilities for women to generate income need to be introduced. This is crucial as a step to address the economic dependency of women.

 Electricity is the most demanded facility to illuminate homes, to run tubewells and to irrigate fields. One probable reason behind the slower pace of manufacturing activities in the district is the unavailability of a dependable power source. However it is hoped that electricity provision to Panjgur through the national grid will remove this major stumbling block to development.

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