Kolkatans take pride in their city being one of the few where trams are still in operation. But once omnipresent in the city, the trams have been restricted to only two routes. On Sunday morning, many tram lovers assembled at the Esplanade tram depot in central Kolkata to root for what they called a “sustainable and acceptable” mode of transport.
An expert from IIT Kharagpur, who was present at the programme, organised by the NGO SwitchOn Foundation, stressed the need to draw enough passengers to reopen tram routes.
Only two routes
The number of tram routes in the city has come down from 25 in 2015 to two now. The two routes where trams still run are Gariahat-Esplanade and Tollygunge-Ballygunge. Services on some of the routes have been stopped as the tracks had been laid on bridges that have become structurally weak. East-West Metro work has forced the closure of some routes.
Some others like the Esplanade-Kidderpore route, much of which runs through the Maidan, have been closed since Cyclone Amphan struck in May 2020 and overhead electric cables got snapped, said a tram lover.
Demand for more routes
Debasish Bhattacharya, president of the Calcutta Tram Users Association (CTUA), said they had been demanding reopening of some of the tram routes for a long time.
“There is no reason why the Esplanade-Kidderpore route cannot be reopened. The government is saying electric cables are not available. But can it take two years to procure the cables?” asked Bhattacharya.
Another CTUA member said they were happy that the transport department was a partner in Sunday’s programme, where the attempt was to highlight environment-friendly modes of transport such as trams and cycles.
“All of us know the benefits of trams. This is an environment-friendly public transport. Besides, trams are a part of Kolkata’s heritage,” said Meghatithi Banerjee, a singer with theatre and performing arts group Whole 9 Yards.
Passengers
Bhargab Maitra, a professor of civil engineering at IIT Kharagpur who works on public transportation, said lack of passengers was a reason why the transport department was not aggressively pushing for increasing the number of tram routes.
“Many routes did not attract too many passengers. I am not saying that public transport has to be profit making, but the number of passengers using the mode has to justify the subsidy the government is giving,” he said.
Public transport, Maitra pointed out, is subsidised across the world. “The government will invest more in the mode of transport that is used by more people,” he said.
Poor service
If trams failed to attract enough passengers, it was because the services were unsatisfactory, Maitra of IIT Kharagpur said. The government, he said, never publicised crucial information such as the frequency of the service and the timings of the first and the last tram on the respective routes.
“You have to create an environment so people feel encouraged to commute by tram,” said Maitra.
Government response
Rajanvir Singh Kapur, managing director of West Bengal Transport Corporation, who was present at Sunday’s event, said the Esplanade-Kidderpore and Bidhannagar (Ultadanga)-Sealdah routes would be opened within six months.