N-5 National Highway


The N-5 or National Highway 5 is a 1819 km national highway in Pakistan, which extends from Karachi in Sindh to Torkham in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The N-5 is the longest national highway in Pakistan and serves as an important north–south road artery, starting from Karachi and extending through Hyderabad, Moro and Khairpur in Sindh before crossing into Punjab province where it passes through Multan, Sahiwal, Lahore, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Jhelum and Rawalpindi. At Rawalpindi, it turns westwards and passes through Attock Khurd before crossing the Indus River into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to continue through Nowshera and Peshawar before entering the Khyber Pass and reaching the border town of Torkham in the FATA. Its total length is divided into 1021 km in Punjab, 671 km in Sindh, 127 km in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the remaining 38 km in the FATA. It is managed by the National Highway Authority.

History

Part of the highway was built on the ancient Grand Trunk Road which came under jurisdiction of the new state after the independence of Pakistan in 1947. Thus developments of this road took place, and in the 1990s, the road was converted into an international standard highway.

Route

In Pakistan, the historical Grand Trunk Route extendeds from Wagha, Punjab to Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the early 1990s, the National Highway Authority merged several regional highways and converted them into a 4-lane highway, known today as N-5 National Highway. The original highways were:

Sindh

Punjab

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

FATA