The people of Kolkata on Sunday witnessed a unique parade of trams when eight tram cars criss-crossed across the north and south of the city. Hundreds of people jostled to ride in the trams and participate in the parade, a grand event to mark 150 years of the completion of tram services in Kolkata.
From the 100-year-old ‘Tram Scrubber’ used to clean tram tracks to trams named ‘Chaitali’, ‘Balaka’‘Bioscope’, ‘Partition Museum’ and ‘Art Gallery’ to an air-conditioned tram car — they were all part of the parade that chugged from Gariahat in the south to Esplanade in the city’s centre and then Shyambazar in the north. The tram parade that started in the morning concluded at the Nonapukur Tram Depot in the afternoon.
The parade aimed to revive the interest of people in trams at a time when the mode of transport is on the last legs. It was the culmination of weeks of planning and work by tram enthusiasts.
Inside the dark, dimly lit shed of the Nonapukur Tram Depot in Kolkata, where dozens of old and rusty trams have been parked for decades, a group of youngsters in their 20s were busy decorating a few trams on February 23. It has been a long since these trams had disappeared from the city’s roads but the eyes of the young tram enthusiasts lit up as they spoke of them.
“This one was built by Burn & Standard in the late 1980s and was used in the West Bengal Tourism Department advertisement featuring Shah Rukh Khan,” aspiring filmmaker Kushang Banerjee (23) said. Akash Ray (25), while pointing at a cream-and-pink tram, explained what was unique about the K-class and L-class trams of the 1930s and 1940s, and why some were called ‘Hathigari’ because of their shape.
The youngsters are fascinated by trams, their design, technology and even their usage in Hindi and Bengali films. “There are two Byomkesh trams which are gathering dust in the tram depot,” one of the volunteers pointed out. These trams were used in Dibakar Banerjee’s film Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! Along with several old tram cars at the Nonapukur Tram Depot, which looks like a graveyard for trams, there is a green watering car used to wash tram tracks, and two rail scrubbers which were used to clean tram tracks — both of which are over a century old. Kolkata is not only the only city in India but in all of Asia to have a functional tram network.
Trams are fading into oblivion. Only three tram routes are operational in the city and the services along the routes are irregular. | Photo Credit: Debasish Bhaduri
When only a few hours were left to complete the decoration of trams, Roberto D’Andrea, a former tram driver and conductor from Melbourne, arrived along with his friend Anthony Graham, a public transport enthusiast. Dressed in a T-shirt that said ’Kolkata-Melbourne Tramjatra’, Mr. D’Andrea, like the youngsters, is a member of the Calcutta Tram Users Association (CTUA), and has visited Kolkata 29 times to promote the cause of trams in the city.
“Through the Tramjatra, which coincides with 150 years of Kolkata Tramways, we have once again started a debate around the utility of trams. We hope that it will give desired results,” Mr. D’Andrea said. In his conversation, the veteran member of CTUA was upset that Kolkata is the only city which says trams cause congestion on the streets. “When several cities in the world are switching to trams for cleaner modes of transport, Kolkata is going completely against the global trend,” the Australian national said.
The very next day, on February 24, tram services in the colonial city completed 150 years of operation. The first tram service started in Kolkata on February 24, 1873 when a horse drawn carriage pulled tram cars from Sealdah to Armenian Street.
The two old wooden trams named ‘Gitanjali’ and ‘Chaitali’, decorated at the Nonapukur Tram Depot, chugged all the way to the Esplanade Tram Depot on Friday morning. Members of CTUA, along with West Bengal Transport Minister Snehasish Chakraborty, inaugurated the ‘Tramjatra’ by cutting a ribbon and a cake. The Minister emphasised that trams will remain functional in the city as a part of its heritage. “On the completion of 150 years of trams in Kolkata, I am not here to say goodbye to trams, I am not here to say farewell to trams. Trams will remain in Kolkata with its heritage,” Mr. Chakraborty said.
The CTUA members and tram enthusiasts are opposed to the idea that trams should only be treated as a part of the city’s heritage.
At present, there are only three operational tram routes in the city — Gariahat to Esplanade, Tollygunge to Ballygunge, and the recently re-introduced Esplanade to Shyambazaar. The State government is of the view that tram routes should be limited to four, adding Esplanade to Kidderpore to the existing routes.
On February 24, the iconic tramway in Kolkata turned 150 years old for which, a week-long festival of Tramjatra started at Esplanade to commemorate the feat. | Photo Credit: Debasish Bhaduri
“The utility of tram services is being undermined by only describing trams as something to do with heritage,” Debasish Bhattacharya, president of CTUA, said. The veteran tram enthusiast, who has been opposing the phasing away of trams since the 1990s, said that the operational routes are also truncated and since the State government is not undertaking any new appointments of tram drivers and conductors, it’s not serious about operating trams. CTUA members say that in the past, there have been 60 tram routes in the city, and 25 routes were operating before 2017.
The CTUA was set-up in 2016 by tram lovers and has expanded to 300 members and volunteers.
From horse-driven carriages in 1873 to metre gauge trams in 1880 to steam engine cars in 1882 to electric-powered trams in 1902 and air-conditioned trams in 2013, the history of trams is synonymous with the history of the metropolis.
“We are aware that the government will go back to its old ways once the 150 years celebration is over,” Mr. Bhattacharya said. He added that after the Tramjatra festival, the CTUA will press more aggressively for restoration of tram services along more routes.
