| Grand Trunk Road | |
|---|---|
| Uttarapath, Sadak-e-Azam, Shah Rah-e-Azam, Badshahi Sadak, Long Walk[a] | |
 | |
 InHooghly, India | |
| Route information | |
| Length | 3,655 km[2] (2,271 mi) |
| Status | Currently functional |
| Existed | before 322 BCE–present |
| History | Mauryan,Sur,Mughal andBritish Empires |
| Time period | 16th century–present |
| Cultural significance | History of the Indian subcontinent andSouth Asian history |
| Known for | Trading |
| Major junctions | |
| East end | Teknaf, Bangladesh |
| West end | Kabul, Afghanistan |
| Location | |
| Major cities | Cox's Bazar,Chittagong,Feni,Dhaka,Rajshahi,Kolkata,Sasaram,Mughalsarai,Varanasi,Mainpuri,Prayagraj,Kanpur,Agra,Aligarh,Bulandshahr,Delhi,Sonipat,Panipat,Karnal,Ambala,Ludhiana,Jalandhar,Amritsar,Chandigarh,Lahore,Gujranwala,Jhelum,Islamabad,Rawalpindi,Peshawar,Jalalabad,Kabul |
TheGrand Trunk Road (formerly known asUttarapath,Sadak-e-Azam,Shah Rah-e-Azam,Badshahi Sadak, andLong Walk)[1] is one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads. For at least 2,500 years[3] it has linked Central Asia to theIndian subcontinent. It runs roughly 3,655 km (2,271 mi)[2] fromTeknaf,Bangladesh on the border with Myanmar[4][5] west toKabul,Afghanistan, passing throughChittagong andDhaka in Bangladesh,Calcutta,Kanpur,Prayagraj,Agra,Aligarh,Ghaziabad,Delhi,Amritsar,Chandigarh in India, andLahore,Rawalpindi, andPeshawar in Pakistan.[6][1]
The highway was built along an ancient route calledUttarapatha in the 3rd century BCE,[7] extending it from the mouth of theGanges to the north-western frontier of India. Further improvements to this road were made underAshoka.[citation needed] The old route was re-aligned bySher Shah Suri toSonargaon andRohtas.[7][8] The Afghan end of the road was rebuilt underMahmud Shah Durrani.[9][7] The road was considerably rebuilt in the British period between 1833 and 1860.[10]
Over the centuries, the road acted as one of the major trade routes in the region and facilitated both travel and postal communication. The Grand Trunk Road is still used for transportation in the present-day Indian subcontinent, where parts of the road have been widened and included in the national highway system.[11]
The road coincides with the currentN1,Feni (Chittagong toDhaka),N4 & N405 (Dhaka toSirajganj),N507 (Sirajganj toNatore) andN6 (Natore toRajshahi towardsPurnea in India;NH 12 (Purnea toBakkhali),NH 27 (Purnea toPatna),NH 19 (Kolkata toAgra),NH 44 (Agra toJalandhar viaNew Delhi,Panipat,Karnal,Ambala andLudhiana) andNH 3 (Jalandhar toAttari,Amritsar in India towardsLahore in Pakistan) viaWagah;N-5 (Lahore,Gujranwala,Gujrat,Lalamusa,Kharian,Jhelum,Rawalpindi,Peshawar andKhyber Pass towardsJalalabad in Afghanistan) in Pakistan andAH1 (Torkham-Jalalabad toKabul) toGhazni in Afghanistan.
TheBuddhist literature andIndian epics such asMahabharata refer to the existence of Grand Trunk road even before theMaurya Empire and was calledUttarapatha or the "Northern road". The road connected the eastern region of India with Central Asia, the terminus of theKhorasan Road.[12]
The precursor of the modern Grand Trunk road was built on the orders of the emperorChandragupta Maurya and was inspired by the PersianRoyal Road[13] (more precisely, its eastern stretch, theGreat Khurasan Road that ran from Media toBactria). During the time of theMauryan Empire in the 3rd century BCE, overland trade between India and several parts of Western Asia and Bactria went through the cities of the north-west, primarilyTakshashila andPurushapura (present-dayTaxila andPeshawar respectively, inPakistan). Takshashila was well connected by roads with other parts of the Mauryan Empire. The Mauryas had maintained this very ancient highway from Takshashila toPatliputra (present-dayPatna in India).Chandragupta Maurya had a whole army of officials overseeing the maintenance of this road as told by the Greek diplomatMegasthenes who spent fifteen years at the Mauryan court. Constructed in eight stages, this road is said to have connected the cities ofPurushapura,Takshashila,Hastinapura,Kanyakubja,Prayag,Patliputra andTamralipta, a distance of around 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi).[9]
The route of Chandragupta was built over the ancient "Uttarapatha" or the Northern Road, which had been mentioned byPāṇini. The emperorAshoka had it recorded in hisedict about having trees planted, wells built at every halfkos and many "nimisdhayas", which is often translated as rest-houses along theroute for the travelers. The emperorKanishka is also known to have controlled the Uttarapatha.[7][14][15]
Sher Shah Suri, the medieval ruler of theSur Empire, took to repair The Chandragupta's Royal Road in the 16th century. The old route was further rerouted atSonargaon andRohtas and its breadth increased, asarai was built, the number ofkos minars andbaolis increased. Gardens were also built alongside some sections of the highway. Those who stopped at the sarai were provided food for free. His sonIslam Shah Suri constructed an additional sarai in-between every sarai originally built by Sher Shah Suri on the road toward Bengal. More sarais were built under theMughals.Jahangir under his reign issued a decree that all sarais be built of burnt brick and stone.Broad-leaved trees were planted in the stretch between Lahore and Agra and he built bridges over all water bodies that were situated on the path of the highways.[7][16] The route was referred to as "Sadak-e-Azam" by Suri and "Badshahi Sadak" by the Mughals.[17]
In the 1830s the East India Company started a program of metalled road construction, for both commercial and administrative purposes. The road, now named the Grand Trunk Road, fromCalcutta, throughDelhi, toKabul,Afghanistan was rebuilt at a cost of £1000/mile.
The road is mentioned in a number of literary works including those of Foster and Rudyard Kipling. Kipling described the road inKim: "'Look!Brahmins andchumars, bankers and tinkers, barbers andbunnias, pilgrims and potters – all the world going and coming. ...' And truly the Grand Trunk Road is a wonderful spectacle. It runs straight, bearing without crowding India's traffic for fifteen hundred miles – such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world."[18]
The ensemble of historic sites along the road in India was submitted to thetentative list ofUNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2015, under the title "Sites along the Uttarapath, Badshahi Sadak, Sadak-e-Azam, Banho, Grand Trunk Road".[1] The Indian sections of the Grand Trunk Road coincide withNH 19,NH 112 andNH 44 of theNational Highways in India.
Psephologists sometimes refer to the area around the GT Road as the "GT Road belt" it is also known as Gujarat road sometimes within the context of elections. For example, during theelections in Haryana the area on either side of the GT Road fromAmbala toSonipat, which has 28 legislative assembly constituencies where there is no dominance of one caste or community, is referred to as the "GT road belt of Haryana".[19][20]
The road coincides with the currentN-5 (Lahore,Gujranwala,Gujrat,Lalamusa,Kharian,Jhelum,Rawalpindi,Peshawar andKhyber Pass towardsJalalabad in Afghanistan) in Pakistan[21][22] andAH1 (Torkham-Jalalabad toKabul) toGhazni inAfghanistan.
Part of the highway was built on the ancient Grand Trunk Road (commonly known as G.T. Road) which came under jurisdiction of the new state after theindependence ofPakistan in 1947.[23] The historical Grand Trunk Route extended fromWagha, Punjab toPeshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The original highways were Peshawar-Torkham Road, Grand Trunk Road (Peshawar-Lahore), Lahore-Multan Road, Multan-Bahawalpur Road, KLP Road (Bahawal Pur-Rahim Yar Khan), Karachi-Rahim Yar Khan Road.
The federal government has approved a major upgrade of the Grand Trunk (G.T.) Road (N-5) for conversion into a uniform three-lane carriageway.[21][22]
Distance calculation is based as per Google Maps.
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The Mauryas had built a Royal Highway from Taxila to Pataliputra, a road that was almost continuously rebuilt in some approximation to the original during the period of Sher Shah, the Mughals and the British. The British referred to it as the Grand Trunk Road.
| International | |
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| National | |
27°20′15″N79°3′45″E / 27.33750°N 79.06250°E /27.33750; 79.06250
