It is not clear when the road was built, however the first Air India flight took off on 15 October 1924, from Karachi's Drigh Road Aerodrome, and the record mentions the road. In 1974, the road was named after Faisal of Saudi Arabia. It was renamed as Shahrah-e-Faisal after the Islamic summit held in Lahore in 1974 as King Faisal provided financial assistance to re-build the road. In the 1970s, Shahrah-e-Faisal was part of the National Highway and thus belonged to the Government of Sindh. In the 1980s, the Government of Sindh transferred it to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. An estimated 250,000 vehicles use the road daily. Shahrah-e-Faisal's sound construction and durability are held up as an example among Karachi roads. It has withstood wear and tear because of strict compliance with standards and because of its large number of drainage outlets. It received a major upgrade and extension in the early 1980s.
Development
2012 Solar-powered streetlights are to be installed by Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.
2014 The majority of traffic signals have been removed only two remain. The conversion into a signal-free road began in 2010.
2016 Rickshaws were banned for causing accidents and traffic problems.
2016 As part of the Karachi Mega Infrastructure Development Projects, sideways, green patches, and footpaths are being constructed.
2016 Karachi Metropolitan Corporation will spend Rs 70 million on the replacement of old bulbs with energy-saving mercury bulbs on roads in Karachi, starting with Shahrah-e-Faisal.
2017 Thousands of trees and hundreds of electric poles have been uprooted by the Local Government Development Project Directorate in order for the road to be widened by on both sides. The area from Star Gate to the Finance and Trade Center was re-paved by the government of Sindh in Phase I of the Karachi Development Project. A complete overhaul of the Drigh Road Flyover was started after the completion of the Aan underpass.
2018 The area from the Finance and Trade Center to Metropole was re-paved at a very fast pace. Construction started on many concrete walls for advertisement after a ban on billboards.
2019 - Separate lane for motorbikes was made on Sharah-e-Faisal of about 20 km long to avoid accidents because of motorbikes.
Problems
In 1987 Shahrah-e-Faisal had around 30 billboards. By 2014 their number had grown to 140, from Hotel Metropole to Gora Qabristan, earning the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation Rs. 250 million per year. In 2018 the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered these billboards removed because, over time, several had collapsed in strong winds, killing and injuring a number of people. The Road Traffic Injury and Prevention Center of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre showed that at least one person dies, and an average of 83 people are wounded, every day on Karachi roads. Shahrah-e-Faisal is considered to be the deadliest road. In 2016 the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation decided to demolish the Drigh Road flyover, an engineering disaster that needed multiple repairs since it was built in 1996. This flyover on Shahrah-e-Faisal takes traffic from the airport towards Gulshan-e-Iqbal.
