Why trying to save Kolkata's trams seems lost cause

One of my pleasantest childhood memories is of taking a ride with an elder on Route 32 of Calcutta Tramways. It went from Howrah, across the famous bridge, via Dalhousie Square, Esplanade, an incomparable part of the evergreen Maidan and upmarket Alipore. It then passed through Kalighat, went past the Tollygunge race course and ended up at the Tollygunge depot amid pleasant suburbia. Other than the scenery that the route offered, trams were clean and comfortable, and had huge windows through which you could see the world.

On the other hand, trying to save Kolkata’s trams, the only city in the country which can boast of them, today seems an almost lost cause, suitably romantic but hopeless nevertheless. The city’s tram services have been declining for a long time, and if the current trend continues, then it can be only a matter of time before the trams disappear altogether from the streets and this grand relic of the past ends up as an odd museum piece.

Some of the finest cities in the world like Paris, Berlin, Florence, Barcelona, Istanbul, Zurich, St Petersburg, Shanghai and Hong Kong are proud to have elegant trams plying their streets, and Kolkata should have been equally proud to belong to that group. Its trams are one of the elements that go into making it a heritage city, which at one time was considered to be the second city of the British Empire.

The practical reason why trams are on their way out is that the city has not been making the regular two-carriage trams for three decades now. Those that still ply are reconditioned and refurbished ones. The underlying real reason is that successive state governments have not cared to develop a blueprint for their revival and put their money into making the plan work.

This is sad as the city otherwise has a keen sense of history. Again the explanation is that those who care about the city’s heritage and seek to nurture it through academic and voluntary efforts and the political class that has ruled the city for the most part since Independence are two different entities between which there is little cross-fertilisation of ideas.

Those among tram lovers who like to remain optimistic, come what may, are pinning their hopes on an affidavit filed by the West Bengal Government before the Calcutta High Court stating that it plans to revive seven tram routes. If this were to happen, the city would have 10 tram routes compared to the three at present.

But there is a catch. The affidavit says the route revival will take two more years (by 2025) to complete and going by the amount of work that will need to be done and the degree of cooperation that will be required between government agencies, in all likelihood the deadline will be missed.

Sections of tram tracks that have been blocked due to the work being done to expand the city’s metro rail footprint will have to be restored. This will need cooperation from the Rail Vikas Nigam. Metro rail work has rendered non-functional most of the tram routes in the south and central parts of the city.

This has disconnected two tram depots in well-known city areas like Tollygunge and Ballygunge from the workshop at Noapara, where trams have to be taken for repair and overhaul. For the restoration of the tram routes, two bridges going over railway lines will have to be tested to make sure that they can carry the intrinsically heavy trams, which are almost entirely made of metal.

Perhaps, even more intractable is the situation on one key road in the densely populated north of the city, which has been made one-way by the traffic police to cope with the rise in vehicular traffic as a result of halted tram services. A lot of tram passengers are now travelling by three-wheeler auto-rickshaws. The politically well-connected young drivers will fight tooth and nail to resist their vehicles having to make way for restored tram services.

The biggest hurdle in the way of reviving tram services is a problem that lies within the powers of the West Bengal Transport Corporation itself which runs the trams. Revival means finding more drivers as many of the drivers have grown old, retired and gone away. Getting more trams on the road means recruiting many more drivers, which is not easily done.

Those who want trams to remain, and the tramways to thrive, cherish trams as an embellishment from a historic past and a tourist attraction. Many first-time visitors have a tram ride on their to-do list as a novel experience. Plus, these enthusiasts have been joined by environmentalists who want more trams that run on electricity rather than vehicles that run on gasoline and belch smoke. So, the lobby for trams is growing.

But the city has an intrinsic problem. Most of its roads are narrow (a far cry from South Delhi, not to speak of Chandigarh) and tram tracks block other traffic. Plus, roads with tram tracks get damaged more easily, and are therefore costlier to maintain. One solution is to have trolley buses, which run on bus tyres (so they don’t need tracks) and draw power from overhead cables. But there is no one making trolley buses in the country.

Over time, a dwindling number of elegant-looking refurbished and reconditioned trams will continue to ornament the city until a day comes when they will get too old to be repaired for a new lease of life.

The writer is a Kolkata-based senior economic analyst