Bring Back the Magic of Trams into the City of Joy
The city of Kolkata is widely known for its scenic beauty associated with its age-old heritage buildings and eye-catching century old monuments and objects be it the Victoria Memorial, Indian National Museum or be it the colorful Yellow Taxi. Another important aspect that livens up the aesthetic of the old Calcutta charm is the already existing Tram Network in the city, the biggest to exist in Asia after Europe. Established in 1902 for the very first time in Kolkata, trams have become a signature mark for the city of joy when it comes to an alternate mode of transport that the city offers.
Time and again the mode of transport has proved to be of immense potency when it comes to providing quality of socialized urban life in terms of clean air, decongestion of roads, safe, affordable and comfortable way of citizen’s mobility apart from the other modes of public transport that the city has to offer.
On December 26, 2021 SwitchON Foundation in association with Calcutta Tram Users Association (CTUA) organized a demonstration in solidarity of bringing the tram back into the city by restoring all tram routes which have been closed under one pretext or another. A few examples of the closed routes include the Judges Court Road, Sealdah flyover and the Belgachia overbridge. Suggestion to increase tram frequencies by bringing back many of the operational trams currently not in use and being stored in tram depots was also made. This demonstration also had a theater group called the ‘Kolkata Tram Theater Group’ performing a splendid play to bring back trams as pollution free and environmentally conscious mode of transport. Moreover at this particular demonstration carried out on December 26 the group even sang a song that tried to bring solidarity to the cause as well.
Further to create confidence in the passenger’s mind, the CTUA also proposed to the West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC) to publish a tram map and timetables for each route with regular updates on social media outlets such as facebook, twitter and new tram stop signs. Another idea that was put forward was to create dedicated roads for ‘TRAM ONLY’ journeys and make all tram-stops perfectly safe for passengers as a solution.
This on road peaceful demonstration spoke volumes in terms of people’s need when it came to reviving the oldest mode of transportation that Kolkata has had for the longest. The above also reflected that there are a fair share of users of this mode as well and more so eager for the tram routes to start running at the earliest.
The cyclone Amphan that had hit the city in 2020 had been a problem to the setting up of the tram lines back on track in the aftermath of the disasters, since it had led to an overhead of messed up wiring with the tram lines already in place. Keeping in mind the mess created after the cyclone thus, the CTUA members wanted the immediate resumption of Esplanade — Kidderpore, route no 36, which is one of the busiest routes of Kolkata, since a year has already passed and people need the services to resume in order to commute back to work. Further in order to make up for the time being lost when the trams were not in operation it was suggested by the demonstrators to increase the tram frequencies (10 minutes) in all routes especially, during peak hours of office time in the late morning and evening.
The reason behind holding this peaceful demonstration by the CTUA was to create confidence about trams on a larger scale within the city and make commuters more aware of the tram routes and at the same time ask for upgrades in the already existing routes within the tram service. Setting up new time tables that match the time tables of the drivers and conductors was also proposed to avoid conflict of interest by the CTUA. Recruiting essential manpower at every point to run tramcars in full capacity and making sure the traffic police does not run interference in the travel route of the tramcars is therefore the need of the hour to bring back the magic of tram into the city.
Currently bus and auto-rickshaw routes are running parallel to tram routes that is a hindrance to the sole rise of tramcar travel and therefore in order for tramcars to gain momentum it is also required for the authorities to dedicate roads for ‘TRAM ONLY’ journeys as mentioned earlier and the earlier it is implemented the better it stands a chance at a quick revival.
The Nonapukur workshop is the place where tramcars are made and manufacturing new tram cars at a defined rate at a nominal cost and stop selling of tram-depot lands to real estate promoters is something that can be looked into. Operating only trams in the core area of the city is definitely a step forward to making sure that trams don’t run empty as has been the situation for quite some time now. The demonstrations by CTUA were also covered by local daily’s such as Anandabazar Patrika, Sanmarg, News Today Bengal, CN News and The Local Journalist which was a really positive step in order to throw light on a much needed situation of reviving the tramcars back into the picturesque cityscapes of Kolkata.
Read the Press Releases here.
