Google Maps has just recently opened up its map database for Pakistan hence allowing an open community of volunteers to help make navigational maps for Pakistan. If you have some spare time please insert a few landmarks so that it can contribute to benefit the community in general.

Edit Karachi Map Here ^[1]

This will naturally be a work in progress and soon we might have a very good database of Karachi, but in the mean time I thought it may be interesting to hear from the community the present status of development of the local GPS maps in continuation to our numerous posts before (2005 Maps ^[2], Google Earth Karachi ^[3], 2006 Karachi Maps? ^[4], 2007 Map it with Naqsha ^[5] & in 2008 ApnaKarachi ^[6]).

My own fascination with GPS maps stems from my recent activities with the OffRoadPakistan ^[7] group which often heads off into the uncharted wilderness of Baluchistan and Sindh almost 5-6 times a year literally breaking away from the hectic Karachi life for a few days of hardcore adventure. Despite having some expert navigators within the group, I pitched in to buy Garmin Nuvi 660 (it was more to satisfy my gadget-fanaticism, I have since then, uploaded it with the Mapsource WorldMap data but found it to be practically useless for street navigation in Pakistan. I’m just sharing a few pictures from our Goran Gatti trip ^[8] in Jan 2008

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In search of a better map I also came across the brilliant effort on Naqsha.net ^[15], Islamabad is decently well mapped but the Naqsha maps of Karachi leaves a lot to be desired for. Extending my hunt I also stumbled across a retailer ^[16] who claimed to have Garmin maps for Karachi (!!) willing to sell it to me for Rs.6500. So the big question here…. Is there any decent maps on Karachi & Pakistan which can be used or do we have to wait up until progress is made on the Google Maps?

_{Credits: Adnan Siddiqi & Noman}