pakistan geographical review 1954 - University of the Punjab

of Parsi merchants and the houses of conductors in commissariat department.
The old Sukkur was just a heap of ruins. A good number of the houses in the
town belonged to the merchant community.
The new town of Sukkur was established in the year 1839 af ter the
conquest of Upper Sind by the British Government and the new town was sited
nearly a mile away from the old, just at the bank of the river on a rocky
ground but was connected to it by a metalled road; the intervening space
being covered by Government buildings. Wi th the establishment of a
military station here old Sukkur also showed signs of revival and there was
an influx of merchants and traders, who opened shops all along the Bunder
Road, which runs parallel to the bank of the river. A number of barracks
were also built for the soldiers between old and New Sukkur. Sir Charles
apier afterwards abandoned Sukkur as a military station. Since then it
has been prospering as a market town.
In appearance Sukkur is a place of contrast. As seen from the railway
station, a little plain in which the station stands, it resembles a vast quarry.
The station area is bounded by a semi-circle of lime-stone hills, but crowned
every where with dull grey quadrilateral houses on the fiat tops of which
stand parallel rows of pillars bearing light roofs Behind these houses, on a
rocky top, the tall sugar-loaf tower of Mir Masum Shah stands up against the
sky, Metalled roads giving off a strong glare slope up the faces of the hills to
a plateau where the civil lines appear clean and trim, though frequently
diversified with ruined tombs. A certain amount of vegetation and a few
gardens are also seen in this area. As soon as the top of the ridge on the
further side of this plateau is reached and one descends the other side, there
stands packed close Sukkur with narrow streets on a level plain, running parallel
to the river Indus. This is the ugliest part of the city. A little farther in the
southwestern corner of the town, close to the head-works of the Barrage, lies
the Barrage township, a colony of the employees of the Irrigation Department,
which came into existence after the completion of the Sukkur Barrage. The
area in between the Barrage township and New Sukkur has been covered with
a few 'Kachcba' houses, a dairy farm and a garden lying adjacent to the
township. The Sukkur river-fiat is all faced with stone piers and 'ghats' at
which cargo boats load and unload. Piles of wood, wheat and other grains lie
in the shade of banian trees. Beyond these piers is the yard where the country
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