A group of tram enthusiasts has decided to organise a transport festival in January to celebrate trams as a clean and green mode of transportation and revive the memories associated with tramcars in the city.
Trams in Calcutta celebrated 150 years last year but they are an almost extinct mode of transport
The three-day Calcutta Transport Festival will be held on College Street.
The organisers said separate sessions on trams and the city, an exhibition on Calcutta’s trams, interactions with old tram regulars and skits will be held during the festival
The festival intends to raise the pitch for reviving trams in the city at a time when the state government has decided to do away with the service except on one route where it will run as a heritage mode of transport, organisers said.
“Several tram routes, including route 36 connecting Kidderpore to Esplanade and 24/29 connecting Tollygunge and Ballygunge, are being done away with. Worldwide, there are efforts to revive tram services because it is clean and green. We need trams in this city even more given our poor air quality,” said Koushik Das, president of Save Heritage Save Tram.
On Thursday, several members of the organisation and a section of tram lovers met at Hatibagan for a mass convention to discuss ways to preserve Calcutta’s trams
A journal — Tramline — was released at the convention.
“Tram lovers will walk in a rally in the last week of the year demanding the immediate resumption of the tram service on the 24/29 route connecting Tollygunge and Ballygunge,” said a senior member of the organisation.
“We will also hold a meeting at the end of the rally to garner support from Calcuttans on the restoration of trams.”
Transport minister Snehasis Chakrabarty has said the state government will do away with trams and run only a stretch between Esplanade and Maidan.
“On some of the stretches, tram tracks have been covered up with a layer of bitumen. Trams are still operational on some routes — Esplanade-Shyambazar and Gariahat-Esplanade. The service between Ballygunge and Tollygunge might start,” a senior transport department official said.
Tram users have demanded the restoration of six routes terminating at BBD Bag now that the construction of Mahakaran station of the east-west Metro is over and the terminating point of the trams, adjoining Lal Dighi, is open to relaying of tracks
The routes are: Shyambazar-BBD Bag, via College Street (route 2); Shyambazar-BBD Bag, via Grey Street (route 10); Galiff Street-BBD Bag (route 8); Rajabazar-BBD Bag (route 14); Ultadanga-BBD Bag (route 16); and Gariahat-BBD Bag, via Esplanade (route 25).