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Karachi Tramway

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In 1886, steam powered trams were replaced by horse driven tramways. This was to the great satisfaction of city residents because the steam engines proved to be too noisy in the residential and commercial areas. The frequency of Steam trams was once every 15 minutes in busy areas and that made the residents quite uneasy because of the noise. After horse trams were introduced, Steam trams were relegated to shunting in depots only whereas light one-horse tram cars took their space on Karachi roads. Horse trams were much cheaper to operate as compared to the steam locomotives fired with coke. The coke had to be shipped from England at a great expense, as Karachi could not afford any supplies, and in Bombay local demands required the whole output of the gas works <ref name=muhal/>.
In 1902 the '''East India Tramway Company Limited''' was formed with John Abbot as Chairman and the The Chief Engineer was [[John Brunton]], whose name was long known in Karachi in connection with the Karachi-Kotri section of the [[Scinde Railway]] line which had been constructed under his supervision <ref name=muhal/>. In 1902 the '''East India Tramway Company Limited''' was formed with John Abbot as Chairman <ref name=muhal/>.
Very soon the horse driven tramways became bigger than ever and by 1905 some of carriages were converted to light railways and the tramway started moving not only passengers but also freight across the city by using petrol engines. By 1909 the Horse-drawn service was being replaced by Petrol driven trams. Petrol trams had a capacity of 46 passengers each and could run up to speeds of 18 mph. Tracks were re laid for petrol driven trams. By 1912 Horse traction was completely suspended and by the end of 1913 the number of Petrol run trams in Karachi was 37 <ref name=muhal/>.
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