Poet Laureate Rabindranath Tagore once called tram a “link between life and literature” even as he described in his Sahaj Paath how “the roads of Kolkata have become like a snake on which the Tram hurtles,” down.
Tram was also a central topic in poet Jibanananda Das’s iconic work, Banalata Sen. Ironically he died in a tram accident in 1954. Decades later a famous modern Bengali writer likened the iconic Tram of Kolkata with a pre-historic reptile even as he called it a “Prak Oitihasik Sorisreep.”
No more these literatures: As the Bengal Government has decided to derail the ‘space guzzling’ vehicle -- arguably the only surviving environment-friendly transport service of Kolkata, nay the entire country.
Dwelling on the issue Bengal Transport Minister Snehashis Chakrabarty said that the Government had decided to discontinue the tram services as it was not only slow but also consumed huge space.
“Trams are the part of Kolkata’s heritage ever since it started its journey in 1873, but one has also to consider the operational costs, its low speed and not lest the space it consumes” all considering the fact that unlike Delhi or Mumbai which have more than 20 per cent of their surface areas comprising roads Kolkata has only six per cent.
“This leads to congestion of traffic particularly in North Kolkata. To ensure that people don’t get late to office during peak hours due to traffic jams, these difficult measures are taken,” he justified.
The Minister however hurriedly supplied two rejoinders: First a short (3 km) route -- from Esplanade to Maidan -- however will be allowed to survive for heritage purpose and tourism and second “a date has not been fixed as we are not going to end it today or tomorrow.” He said the decision was in contemplation for quite some time (years)” when several tram routes in North Kolkata were phased out without notice fearing public backlash.
Despite the idea being in contemplation from as early as the Left regime it was the TMC Government that set out to bell the cat sand hastened up the speed of tram’s withdrawal particularly after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told in one of her public speeches how tram tracks had become a nuisance on thoroughfares like the Hazra Road that leads to her Kalighat residence making it risky for the bikers who “may any moment skid off their vehicles due to the tram lines.”
Kolkata was the first to get trams on February 24, 1873, with horse-drawn cars running on tracks. “A big horses’ stable was set up at Raja Bazaar off Sealdah to supply the horses for trams. Subsequently tram was modernised with steam power in 1882, whereas first electric-powered tram was introduced in 1900 a few years after Madras (presently Chennai) got its own electric tram. More recently AC trams were introduced in 2013.
Trams ran in colonial towns like Mumbai, Delhi , Madras, Patna, Nashik too but they were discontinued with time and as more modern and faster modes of transport appeared but for Kolkata. The city clung on to its “heritage and cultural icon,” for decades until the present Government decided to discontinue it.
“We tried to restore tram to its former glory often by offering schemes like AC restaurants on tram as also proposing offers for ‘wedding on trams’ … but nothing was taken seriously by the authorities as they had decided to discontinue it,” a member of tram users association said adding “at Rs 6 and 7 tram is perhaps the cheapest service in the city which this Government is trying to discontinue and which we will not let happen.”
“We have seen tram transform a from wooden to a steel carriage in the early 1980s, … we loved tram so much and offered our service whole-heartedly but the Government should also have understood the importance of tram which is not only environment friendly but also cheap,” said Naresh Singh a 90-year-old former tram pilot.
Such was the popularity of tram in 1960s and 70s that a mere one paisa increase in its fare led to a massive unrest in Kolkata that saw several trams being torched by the agitators, he said.
Meanwhile the Calcutta High too has offered its suggestion while dealing a public interest litigation asking the State Government to explore a public-private partnership mode to allow the vehicle of the past to survive. The PIL was filed in 2022 and is still continuing. In the PIL Sulagna Mukherjee, the petitioner pointed out that at time different cities of the world were increasingly embracing tram services for its “green” attributes the State Government is going to discontinue it.
“We will go for a bigger movement and will not allow this Government to kill tram … they are doing this in order to reclaim the sprawling lands housing tram depots on prime areas where the politicians will allow the builder lobby to make malls … we will not let that happen … rather we will even force them to reintroduce the double-decker buses which they have discontinued a decade ago,” said Archishman Chatterjee a college student who was a part of a recent agitation at Shyambazar crossing.
