The situation with respect to economic infrastructure and communications is on the whole satisfactory and further development is underway in the district. Rapid urban development has taken place in the district during the last decade and a half. The overall state of roads is good, and most parts of the district are accessible by trunk and link roads throughout the year, but a journey on link roads is not comfortable, as they are mostly shingled.

The transport situation has considerably improved, but is not yet satisfactory. In almost all other respects telecommunication, postal service, banking facilities, electricity and gas supply, etc, the district has registered progress, though a lot more remains to be done.

The road situation is, on the whole, fairly satisfactory as all urban and semi urban centres and most of the villages can be reached throughout the year with varying ease through metalled and shingled roads. The total length of roads is 566 km (1995); 87 km metalled and 479 km shingled as shown in table 6.2.1. For more information see annex 7.

( Kilometres )

Source: 1. C & W Department, Sibi

2. Development Statistics, BOS, GOB

The provincial roads and sections of the national highways passing through the district are maintained by the C&W Department. The roads shown in Table 6.2.1 under the column " Other Agencies " are link roads constructed with MPAs/MNAs grants and local government department funds. The C&W Department is not responsible for their maintenance and for that reason its data does not include these roads. The C&W Department maintains 14 roads with a total length of 353 km (87 km metalled and 266 km shingle roads).

The transport situation in the district is much better than ten years ago, but it is not satisfactory yet as indicated by vehicles overloaded with passengers and goods. Mechanised and animal driven vehicles (donkey carts and tongas) co-exists. Most vehicles are not in good shape.

About 35 passenger carriers daily operate between Sibi and Quetta. These include approximately 30 wagons, one coaster, and 3 to 4 buses. Beside, almost every 10 to 15 minutes, a bus from Sind on its way to Quetta passes through Sibi town. Wagons are normally packed with as many as 20 passengers against the standard capacity of 14. Buses are similarly crammed with passengers and goods. Human and small animals can frequently be seen travelling together in the same vehicle.

Women face great difficulty in travelling. In the front place they cannot travel alone whether it is within in town or from one town to the other. They are invariably escorted by their men. The transport operators have tendency to squeeze an unduly large number of women on a few seats.

Trucks, tractors, donkey carts, horse carts, and camels are used for haulage of goods. Several hundred donkey carts are operating in the district, but these are not shown in official statistics as they are not registered.

Cars, trucks and other mechanised vehicles are registered with the Excise & Taxation Department, Sibi district. Tongas, rheras, donkey carts, etc are not required to be registered with this department. Besides those registered in Sibi, a large number of vehicles registered in other places, operate in the district.

Sibi district is connected with Quetta and Sukkur by railway line. In Sibi the line branches to Harnai. The train service to Harnai is not regular.

The district has a small airport, a few kilometres from Sibi town. However, it is not in regular use.

There was a Radio Station in Sibi town, but it closed down as soon as it was commissioned. Most households in the town, and many in the villages, have radios. The number of households with radios, however, can not be ascertained. The number of radio licences issued by the post office is not a good indicator in this respect, as hardly any one obtains a radio licence.

Television is commonly in possession of households in town and also villages. Most households in the town are reported to be in possession of TV, and quite a few have dish antennas to receive satellite transmission.

Telecommunication facilities are concentrated mainly in the urban centres of the district and the villages in their close proximity. There are two government pcos and three private pcos. Many shopkeepers also provide telephone facilities on payment. Over a thousand of homes have telephone connections. A few government offices have fax machines.

The district has two major and twenty four sub post offices. In Sibi town there are branches of two nationally known private couriers.

There are six branches of commercial banks in the district: five in Sibi tehsil and one in Harnai town. In addition, there is a branch office of the Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan and of the Small Business Finance Corporation in Sibi town. The Cooperative Department has an office in Sibi. Its functions include provision of credit to farmers, but presently this facility has been suspended due to large scale defaults of borrowers.

The district has three grid stations. Besides the urban centres, Sibi town and Harnai town, electricity is available to ten villages according to WAPDA. The officially reported number of electricity consumers is 7,159 (for 1995-96), but the actual number is said to be much higher, perhaps twice or three times the official number, as there are numerous illegal electricity connections in the urban as well as the rural areas.

Natural gas is only available to Sibi town. The total number of consumers is 2,452; all but 50 are domestic connections.

The district has a circuit house and five rest houses. There are a large number of hotels and restaurants in the private sector. Hotels facilities are poor. The circuit house and four of the five rest houses are located in Sibi town. There is one rest house in Harnai town. All have electricity and cooking facilities. The circuit house has provision for eleven air-conditioners, but presently only two rooms have these, and even these two do not operate due to low voltage.

The governmental residential colonies, all in Sibi town, are: Railway colony, Police colony, Irrigation colony, Commissioner's staff colony, Deputy Commissioner staff colony, C&W staff colony and Labour colony.

Legend: - no involvement

* minor involvement

*** major involvement

The overall state of development of economic infrastructure and communication is satisfactory, though there is scope for improvement in all respects. The major development issues are:

• Most roads are shingled and need improvement.
• More link roads are required to interconnect the villages.
• The vehicles operating in the area are not enough to meet demand. More buses and wagons are needed. Still more pressing is the need for improving the standard of transport services; provide better vehicles, stop overloading, increase frequency of services, etc.
• The Sibi airport needs to be re-activated.
• Electricity needs to be provided to more villages. Load-shedding is too frequent, and needs to be cut.
• Gas needs to be supplied to villages around Sibi town.
• Rest houses are concentrated in Sibi town and Harnai town. More rest houses are needed in these places, at tehsil headquarters, and other suitable places.
• Accommodation, guest houses and hotels, need to be provided for women visiting Sibi town and Harnai town.

A comprehensive study of the situation with respect to women's mobility needs to be undertaken, followed by appropriate transport arrangements for them.

Back to Sibi