The state government has set up a 12-member committee to "examine and submit a report" to Calcutta High Court on how tram services can be restored, maintained and preserved in the city.
The committee includes representatives from the Calcutta Tram Users Association, an NGO, the Calcutta Municipal Commission's heritage committee and officers of the transport department.
In June, a division bench of Calcutta High Court, headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, had directed the state government to set up an expert committee for the preservation of “heritage transport” after a lawyer, who is also a tram enthusiast, had filed a public interest litigation seeking to know the state government's policy on tram preservation.
"This court takes judicial notice of the fact that several heritage structures in the state are being preserved by the State. Either fully funded by the State or partly funded by the Centre. Therefore, we are of the clear view that the Tram Services should not be totally effaced or dismantled in the city of Kolkata," the division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta had said in its order.
Transport department officials said a report about the formation of the committee has been submitted to the court. The court is scheduled to hear the petition on Wednesday.
The transport department has scuttled the services of trams along several routes while completely doing away with the services of several others.
Over 116km of tram tracks exist in the city but trams operate on 33km of those tracks. From around 25 routes operational in 2017, trams now run only on three routes — 5 (Shyambazar-Esplanade), 25 (Ballygunge-Esplanade) and 24/29 (Ballygunge-Tollygunge).
There were six big tram depots and only two of the bigger ones are functional now.
Most of the other depots have been sold to private parties, a section of tram users have alleged.
In the June order, the division bench restrained the state government "...from selling or putting up for sale by way of public auction any of the properties of the West Bengal Transport Corporation or the Calcutta Tramways Corporation until further orders."
On Tuesday, senior officers of the department said the government has not sold off any of the tram depots but has leased them out in a manner that the service is not hampered. “The depots have been monetised with scope for vertical growth so that the department receives some cash to slash the subsidy component from the state,” an official said.