MALL ROAD

History of the Mall road and GPO chowk, Lahore

Kaleem Ahmad
Research Methods
NCA-ARCH-334

Lahore is the heart of Pakistan. This city is famous for its traditions, culture, buildings, festivals
and foods. People from different parts of the country came to Lahore for study, job and for their
career. Due to the opportunities and attractions, the load of traffic, and people is increasing day
by day. This continuous increase in population will lead to serious urban issues and problems.
Climate of Lahore is drastically changed over the past few decades. There is a challenge for the
road and traffic designers to control such a huge burden.

Mall road is one of the most ancient and famous roads of Lahore. The road is famous because
of the historical buildings and cultural buildings on sides of that road. Most of the buildings were
built during the British period. The architecture of these buildings varies from Mughal to
Colonial. Each building has its own historical significance and value.
 It is one of the longest roads of the city and it contained most of the public and government
buildings. Some of the buildings are

 Alhamra Arts Council

 Government College University
 Governor's House
 King Edward Medical College
 Lahore American School
 Lahore Museum
 Masonic Temple
 National College of Arts
 Pearl Continental Hotel
 University of the Punjab
 Wapda House

GPO chowk

GPO chowk is the main chowk of Mall road. From this chowk three sub road originates to the sides.
These roads are Mcleod road, Ustad Alllah bakhsh road and Thronton road. The chowk is also
surrounded by important historical buildings and government buildings. If we see the historical
images of the chowk for past 20 years then we didn’t notice any significant change in the road
networks and directions. However, the road traffic is drastically increased. Accessibility of the
chowk increased both for pedestrian and also for vehicular traffic. Mall road is not permeable for the
rickshaws and animals' carts.

If we look at the present conditions then there is a lot changed in Mall road and also in GPO chowk.
One of the main additions is the Orange Line train. Orange Line totally changed the face of the city
and the Mall road. The first station of the train is Ali Town and last station is Dera Gujra.

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 This covers total of 28km distance. GPO station is underground. However, this doesn’t disturb the
roads and the traffic system at the chowk. But the present traffic conditions are worse. Density of
pedestrian will also increase due to Orange Line stations. The exists and the entrances of the
stations are on the edge of the roads due to the lack of available space. It seems like stations have
been forced fit into the space. The map and face of the place will change when people came too
much. Thus, the importance of the historical buildings will be very low.

The activities at the chowk will also increase due to the train. There may be more food stalls, local
Bazars, vendors, fruit stalls and other sellers. More taxies may stop at the chowk and stations and
cause traffic block.

There is no peace at all. The chowk is drastically noisy and continues in working. Traffic noise is the
main problem for office and government buildings on the sides. More pedestrian will cause more
noise.

If we look back in 18 centuries. The Lahore was lush green. Mall road was cover with trees and
greens areas. Huge number of trees have been cut down due the constructions on the road. By
cutting down trees the climate of the city is changed. One of the major issue is smog. Temperature
is also increasing day by day.

DATE : 09-17-2018