Bengal govt to discontinue tram service in Kolkata barring one short stretch

Kolkata: The West Bengal government has decided to discontinue the 150-year-old tram service in Kolkata soon, barring a solitary heritage stretch from Maidan to Esplanade, Transport Minister Snehasis Chakraborty said.

Tram lovers, however, have decided to hit the streets in protest against the decision. Kolkata is the only city in the country where trams continue to operate.

Chakraborty said slow-moving trams, which move along the roads creating traffic jams in peak hours, cannot be run in the present situation as commuters need faster modes of transportation.

"Trams are undoubtedly a part of Kolkata's heritage after their introduction in 1873 as horse-drawn carriages and played a crucial role in transportation in the previous century.

"But as roads comprise only 6 per cent of Kolkata's surface area and with increase in vehicular traffic, we have observed that trams cannot ply the roads along the same routes at the same time as it is leading to congestion," Chakraborty told reporters on Monday evening.

Chakraborty said as the issue of plying trams is now pending before the Calcutta High Court, the state government will make the aforementioned submission in the next hearing.

The high court, while hearing a PIL, had on December 11 last year suggested that a public-private partnership (PPP) model can be used to restore and rejuvenate tramcar services in Kolkata. Tram services have already been discontinued along several routes in the city.

The minister said despite having the lowest road space among metropolitan cities, Kolkata Police have kept traffic flowing even during peak hours.

"To ensure that people don't get late to office during peak hours due to traffic jams, we have to take certain difficult measures, including the withdrawal of trams," he said.

Heritage trams, however, will run between Maidan and Esplanade so that people can have a pleasant and environment-friendly ride, the minister said.

Responding to a query, he said that the state government allows only those commercial vehicles to ply the roads that conform to the pollution norms and encourages the usage of electric vehicles, "which is yielding results".

Sharply reacting to the state's announcement, the Calcutta Tram Users Association (CUTA) said it will hold demonstrations before five tram depots across the city in protest.

"We will not let it happen. If the state government is serious about easing traffic congestion, it can remove encroachment and widen roads. Trams, which are non-polluting, are not slow-moving as their average speed is 20-30 kmph, which is the average speed of automobiles in the city," environmental activist and tram lover Somendra Mohan Ghosh told PTI.

Kaushik Das, an association member of CUTA, said, "If the government repairs and ensures regular upkeep of tramcars lying unused in several depots for several years, they can run the fleet in a smooth manner." The association has launched a hashtag campaign to save Kolkata trams.

"We will start a movement by this week to save trams," Das added.