Date: 16/07/2021 Shift: 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM Q. No: 113

Grand Trunk Road (G T Road) is one of South Asia’s oldest and longest major roads. The road, often called as the ‘GernailiSadak’ (the Generals’ Road) and Sadak-e-Azam (‘The Grand Road’) covers a distance of 2,700 km (1,700 mi) running through parts of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The road is mostly paved. The journey is an unforgettable experience. It is a fascinating highway, extending from Kabul through Lahore, Delhi and reaching Kolkata in West Bengal and Chittagong in Bangladesh. This busy asphalted road still forms a vital link for trade and communication for the social strata that live along this region. The Grand Trunk Road starts in Kabul, Afghanistan. The road continues to Pakistan near Peshawar through the famous Khyber Pass. This famous international mountain pass, at an elevation of 1.070m (3,510ft) above the sea level, is one of the oldest known passes in the world, and connects Afghanistan and Pakistan. Beyond this mountain pass, the Grand Trunk Road arrives to the suburbs of Taxila, goes down to Lahore and crosses into India at Wagah. After 2500km, the road ends at Kolkata. Nowadays the road is still by far the busiest, wildest road in areas that are now part of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

It is one of the oldest road routes in India. In antiquity, it was known as Uttarāpatha, ‘the upper road’. For more than two millennia, it linked the Indian subcontinent with Central Asia. The road was rebuilt by Sher Shah Suri, in the 16^th century. In the colonial era, the British developed this ancient route into a highway across the breadth of their realm, and renamed it as the Grand Trunk Road. Rudyard Kipling called it ‘a river of life’, but for the modern driver it’s a nightmare. The road is full of trucks and rattling buses manned by drivers without much respect for their lives – or yours. And then there are the cyclists, the pedestrians, the salesmen, the ox carts, the cows, the buffaloes.