The state government has sought clarity from Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), the implementing agency for East-West Metro, about the plan for the proposed interchange at Esplanade station before deciding on restoring the Kidderpore-Esplanade tram route.
The proposed Esplanade station of East-West Metro is being built at Curzon Park and the state government has sought details of the station as well as a proposed multi-modal transport hub that will come up adjacent to it from the consulting agency RITES, which has been involved in both projects.
Metro Railway has decided to shift Bidhan Market to facilitate construction of the Joka-Esplanade Metro line.
The three Metro lines — north-south, east-west and Joka-Esplanade — will converge at Esplanade at various levels.
“A portion of the tracks of the Esplanade-Kidderpore tram route passes through the stretch where the Esplanade station for East-West Metro is being built and the transport hub will come up. We want to know whether tram services can be resumed while construction is on,” said a senior official of the transport department.
“We have learnt that the detailed project report for the transport hub is being readied and it is therefore important for us to have the details before proceeding to restore the tram route.”
Police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) have agreed to restore the Esplanade-Kidderpore tram route, which passes through the Maidan.
Mayor Firhad Haikm had in December said the state government was keen on running trams on the Esplanade-Kidderpore route and wanted to remove tram tracks from parts of the city where there was no possibility of running trams.
“The biggest challenge in restoration is posed by the overhead cables along the 5km-long route (Esplanade-Kidderpore), which were damaged by Cyclone Amphan in May 2020. The cables cost over Rs 1.5 crore and if we snap the power supply when trams are not moving, there is a possibility that they may get stolen,” an official said. “So once restored, the cables will have continuous power supply.”
A section of tram lovers has demanded that apart from the Esplanade-Kidderpore route, tram services be revived on the Galiff Street-Esplanade, Dalhousie-Shyambazar and Rajabazar-Dalhousie routes.
These routes remain vital for people commuting to their places of work from different corners of the city, the tram users said.
“A few trams routes in the city’s north such as Galiff Street-Esplanade (route 8), Dalhousie-Shyambazar (route 10) and Rajabazar-Dalhousie (route 14) should be revived immediately along with the Esplanade-Kidderpore route,” said Debasish Bhattacharyya of the Calcutta Tram Users Association.
The transport department has curtailed tram services along several routes and completely done away with the services in many. Over 116km of tram tracks exist in the city but trams operate on only 33km.
From a little over 25 routes operational in 2017, trams now run only on three routes — 5 (Shyambazar-Esplanade), 25 (Gariahat-Esplanade) and 24/29 (Ballygunge-Tollygunge).