Hyderabad: “Wow! That would be good,” was the reaction of Alfred Peter’s son when told about a project to connect Charminar and the Moazzam Jahi Market using a tramway.
Mr. Peter an urban planner, who is among the 14-member French team that is in the city, shared his enthusiasm for the project through his son’s eyes, as the latter had spent more than two years in Hyderabad. “My son and his partner understood how life and transport in this crowded area will change for the better if new age tramcars are introduced,” said Mr. Peter.
After walk on a stretch of Charminar precinct which has cobbled street, Michele Larue-Charles and her team shared their experiences and outlook for the project which at one go promises to decongest the area and reduce traffic chaos.
Tourist inflows
“We didn’t spend a lot of time. But I think it can be executed, I see the cars as a challenge not the autorickshaws. Autos can be replaced with electrically powered autos. In Bordeaux we have retractable bollards which were used to regulate heavy traffic after 11 p.m. and we can do it here,” said Ms. Larue-Charles, director of urban planning, Bordeaux Metropole which has 66 km of tramway.
“Hyderabad has an outer ring road and this new age tramway will act as a link and solve a lot of problems. The one main issue would be to educate the people about the benefits of tramway as it can bring in more number of tourists to this part of the city raising commercial rents and standards of living,” she said.
After the introduction of tramway in 2003, Bordeaux has consistently scored high in terms of tourist inflow, standards of living and is now included in the World Heritage Site which Hyderabad aspires to.
Not considered earlier
Hyderabad has flirted with ideas of other modes of mass transport, but this is the first time a tramway is being proposed. Beginning in early ’60s when a circular railway was mooted to the time of LRTS and interlude of BRTS to finally settling down on Metro to complement Outer Ring Road, the city has checked out all mass transport solutions.
“Why wasn’t this thought about before? Something like this could have been executed much earlier without the destruction wrought on heritage by the Metro project,” said Sajjad Shahid, city historian and an engineer.
The tramway in Bordeaux uses ground level power supply and there are no unsightly cables running through the streets.
To be sure Bordeaux (Pop: 749,595) is no comparison to Hyderabad with its 1 crore population and inner city streets but the tramway option is being explored in all earnestness by city planners.
