The state transport department wants to run trams on only one small route and do away with the eco-friendly public transport option the city once took pride in, officials in the know said.
If the transport department’s plan gets chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s approval, Calcutta will have a tram service only between Esplanade and somewhere near the racecourse, about 3.5km away.
Calcutta High Court had asked the state government to find ways to preserve “heritage trams”.
The plan, it appears, is to preserve the tram service as a showpiece and not a viable transport option.
“The proposal suggests truncating the existing Esplanade-Kidderpore route to some point in the Maidan and doing away with all other routes. The existing 5km route between Esplanade and Kidderpore will be reduced to a stretch of around 3.5km with existing tram tracks,” a senior official of the transport department said.
“The new route will require setting up a tram depot at the terminating point in the Maidan. If that proves a difficult task, involving clearances from the army, the service can be extended to the tram depot in Kidderpore.”
The proposal is believed to have found takers in the state secretariat, though no official communication has reached the transport department yet, more than one official said.
Once cleared by the chief minister’s office, the proposal will be placed before the state cabinet. A notification will have to be issued to make it official after a cabinet clearance, a senior official said.
In June 2023, a division bench of Calcutta High Court headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam spoke about the need to preserve trams.
From 25 tram routes in 2015, the service survives on just three routes a year after Calcutta celebrated 150 years of tram service. Transport department officials said services on some routes were stopped as the tracks passed through bridges that are now structurally weak. East-West Metro work 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 were snapped, said a senior official of the transport department.
“The transport department’s proposal suggests doing away with three functional routes — Tollygunge-Ballygunge, Gariahat-Esplanade and Esplanade-Shyambazar. The service on the Tollygunge-Ballygunge route is now suspended because of work on underground pipelines by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC),” the official said.
While tram services remain suspended on several routes, the tracks remain on roads in different parts of the city.
At a meeting in Nabanna on July 8, chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her displeasure over the existing tram tracks between Mominpore and Hazra and asked the transport department to address the issue.
“Trams aren’t plying on the Mominpore-Hazra route for long. But the tracks continue to remain. I have seen people skidding with motorcycles. Why should such accidents occur?” Mamata said.
Officials in the transport department said once the proposal gets an official nod, a report will be placed before the high court. The department will also seek the high court’s clearance to remove the tram tracks on routes where trams won’t run any longer, the officials said.
Tram enthusiasts in the city have been demanding the restoration of several tram routes, including those that terminate in the Dalhousie office district.
Now that the construction of Mahakaran station of East-West Metro is over and the terminating point adjoining Lal Dighi is open to relaying of tram tracks, there is no reason why some of the routes cannot be restored, the tram lovers have said.
“Worldwide, there are efforts to bring back trams. In Lahore, the government has approved the revival of trams. In a city like ours where vehicle count is growing by the day, trams remain the most energy-efficient and green mode of transportation,” said Debasish Bhattacharya, president, Calcutta Tram Users’ Association.
“How can the state government be reluctant about reviving tram routes?”