For the economic development of an area communication plays a vital role. The district is located on the RCD highway and linked with the metropolitan city of Karachi to the south and with the provincial capital Quetta to the north. Public transport is available to Quetta, Khuzdar and Karachi; about 100 vans and buses ply between various cities. Within the district, various areas are connected with shingle roads whose total length is 1,270 km. The district is not linked with other parts of the country through air and rail, however, telecommunication is available to the people of Kalat. A T.V. booster has also been installed in Kalat.

The total length of the roads in the district is 2,031 km, out of which only 174 km is metalled, 1,270 km is shingle road and 587 km is Hartan (a four wheel drive road in hilly tracts). For the maintenance of metalled roads the National Highway Authority and the Directorate of Building and Road (of the provincial Communications and Works Department) are responsible, while the shingle roads are maintained by B & R.

Buses, mini buses and motorbikes are the main means of transport in urban areas of the district, while in the rural area, bicycles, motor bikes, pick-ups, and delivery vans are used for transportation. Poor people of the district use camels and donkey carts.

The Department of Excise and Taxation is responsible for collection of registration fees for vehicles. According to the statistics provided by the Excise & Taxation Dept., the total number of registered vehicles was 286 in the year 1994-95. In the district there is a number of vehicles without registration.

Source: Development Statistics, BoS, GoB.

No rail or air service is available in the district.

In the district no radio and television stations exist. However, a T.V. booster is functioning in the city of Kalat, telecasting P.T.V. programmes. Every second house in the urban areas has a television set. People watch not only the Pakistani programmes, but also foreign channels by using dish antennas. In rural areas, the number of the people possessing TV sets is much lower. Instead, they listen to radio broadcasts from various radio stations. Of course, radio is a cheaper means of keeping oneself aware of what is happening in the world. Most of the people (about 90%) use radio and TV sets without licenses.

In the district the telephone facility is available in all Tehsils. The fax and telex service is also available in Kalat city. The District Headquarters is also enjoying the facility of direct dialing. There are 350 telephone lines in the district headquarters, while the capacity of the exchange is for 400 lines. In Kalat district 13 Public Call Offices (PCOs) are functioning officially, while there is also a number of unofficial PCOs, in the city.

Two types of post offices are functioning in the district: three main post offices and seven branch post offices. The main post office is a regular post office, which is run by the government itself, whereas the branch post offices work on a kind of ad hoc system. Some notable persons such as school teachers and patwaris are hired by the government to carry out the postal service in the rural areas. These persons working for the branch post office receive normally an amount of Rs.600/- per month. Courier service is also available in the district.

United Bank and Habib Bank have branches in Kalat district. The Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) is also functioning in Kalat, providing loans to the farmers under various schemes to facilitate them in carrying out the agricultural activities. An NGO (BRSP) has also launched some useful schemes of granting loans to the poor farmers and particularly to the women to involve them in the economic activities in the district.

For the socio-economic activities the importance of electricity and gas cannot be overemphasized. All the towns and a large number of villages of the district have been electrified by WAPDA through four grid stations. The total number of connections include 4,891 domestic, 506 commercial, 1,234 for tube wells (for irrigation), 5 for street lights, one for a colony and 16 for Kacha houses (temporary) in the district. The total supply of the electricity is about 1,549,700 units per month.

According to the statistics provided by the revenue department of WAPDA, the cost of the electricity supplied to the district is 28 million rupees. However, bills are sent according to the meter readings, for no more than 8 million rupees and the bills recovered are good only for 1.1 million rupees.

Kalat has not yet been connected to the gas pipeline. However, Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) is available in cylinders.

In District Kalat there are six rest houses, managed by various Departments. Out of them four are in Kalat and one each in Sorab and Johan.

The basic facilities are available in these rest houses. Some of them are not maintained properly. There is no hotel of reasonable standards in the district. There are some restaurants in Kalat town and also along the RCD Highway, serving a limited variety of food, tea and snacks. People sit in these restaurants and watch T.V. to pass their time.

It has been observed that the economic infrastructure requires much attention on the part of the government. Many rural areas are still deprived of roads and need to be connected with the district headquarters. Farm-to-market roads are yet to be constructed to facilitate the farmers in bringing their agricultural produce to the main cities. The road leading to Bibi Nani is at present a shingle road which needs to be metalled to make the link between Kalat and Bolan shorter and easier. Similarly, the road leading to Herboi needs to be improved to attract tourists to this beautiful picnic resort. Overall maintenance of both metalled and shingle roads is not satisfactory. Telecommunication facilities are adequate.

Herboi forest is unique and has the reputation of having the oldest juniper trees in the world. This is one of the national assets and needs to be preserved at all cost. People are cutting these historical trees for fuel wood. This can be prevented only if natural gas is supplied to the area. The gas pipe line can be brought from Mastung which is just 90 km from Kalat.

It is very unfortunate that the invoices recovered for the electricity supplied by WAPDA to the district is only 4%. Government should take steps to ensure that people pay their electricity bills.

Banks should provide credit facilities to women so that they may be able to generate additional income. This act will bring them into the mainstream of economic activities.

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