JOIN USThey are romanticised street cars rumbling through the streets of the choc-a-bloc Kolkata, with the signature clanging sound of their bells, for more than 130 years now. As the slow-paced but eco-friendly trams chug along, noisily and often filling the air with electric sparks while drawing power from the overhead lines, they renew every day a covenant between the city’s present and the past.
As trams run past the city’s old buildings, modern high-rises and chaos, they cannot vie cheek by jowl with modern day transportation. They lost the dedicated corridors meant for them as the civic fathers de-reserved the tram boulevards for making way to more motor vehicles.
While a tram may still be the reason for Bollywood filmmakers to come and shoot films in this eastern city, from Kahaani to the recent Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, there has not been any major initiative to revive their glorious past. So, even in the new regime in Bengal, trams remain neglected.
But these vehicles tell the story of the city’s life and times since 1873, when they were first introduced as horse-drawn carriages in January 1881. A steam tramway line opened in 1882. Electric trams began plying from March 27, 1902, and by 1921 there were 56 km of track and 512 cars in service, according to the Calcutta Tramway Company (CTC).
Kolkata can also boast of having the oldest operating electric tram in Asia — running since 1902. The most vintage tramcar in the city’s fleet is over 75 years old. The last new car was purchased 37 years ago.
While trams faced many hurdles to survive, in October 2013 they got a fresh lease of life with their re-introduction on a route where once commuters would wait only for a tram car till concretisation project interrupted their commute.
So when the service on Route Number 29 from Kalighat (known for a famous temple dedicated to Goddess Kali) to downtown Esplanade (the old city centre) resumed after a hiatus of seven years in 2013, it scripted a survival story. More routes reopened subsequently.
A CTC official says trams now commute around 1 lakh people every day. But according to tram activist Debasish Bhattacharya, there is an utter apathy in the administration to increase the ridership.
“If ridership comes down, it will be easy for the government to say that trams are not viable and hence should be abolished from the streets. I think the ridership should be increased by increasing the frequency and making the major passenger-generating points safe and commuter-friendly,” he says.
He adds that CTC already has a huge infrastructure to run trams, and the Nonapukur workshop for trams in the city is a unique factory in itself.
Amid the apathy, Kolkata’s tram had received a lot of attention in 2001 when the CTC had organised a ‘Tramjatra’, connecting with the tram lovers of Melbourne. This festival commemorated the similarity between the two cities with respect to trams, hence bringing the focus on the city’s heritage cars.
Bollywood romanticised the trams as well. Recently, when filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee shot Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! in Kolkata, wooden tram cars were brought out to recreate the ambience of 1940s Kolkata.
The CTC happily rented out the trams to the film company — like they do for private parties. The company’s Chief Operating Manager said they charged about Rs 3 lakh from the film production company.
Some specially renovated trams are also being used for the heritage tour of the old city. The West Bengal Tourism department, along with CTC, recently launched air-conditioned trams for heritage tours.
As the onslaught of modernity changes the facade of our old cities, trams in Kolkata continue to bond with the city’s British past as a great survivor.