TRANSPORT-INDIA: Tram Cars Running On Nostalgia and Inertia

By Sujoy Dhar Reprint | | Print |

Sujoy Dhar

KOLKATA, India, Jun 19 2001 (IPS) - Decrepit and battered from moving generations of people through this overcrowded eastern metropolis, the tramcars of the eastern Indian city of Kolkata are still streetcars named desire to many.

Robert D’ Andrea and Suzi Attwill are among them. They were here recently with a group of tramcar lovers from Melbourne, Australia, to admire and if possible, help resuscitate the wood- and-steel contraptions that move along on tracks and draw electric power from overhead cables.

Melbourne shares with Kolkata the distinction of being the last two cities in the former British colonies where trams have survived as a means of transport from a more spacious, bygone era.

But there the similarities end. Such is the pressure of humanity and vehicles on Kolkata’s chaotic roads that trams may at last be facing the end of the road here.

Harried commuters caught in never ending traffic snarls look askance at the state government’s attempts to keep the trams running and its patronage for the recent ‘Tram Yatra’, a festival designed keep interest in the tram heritage.

On hand for the festival was West Bengal state transport minister Subhas Chakraborty who literally lent his voice to the cause by joining singers on board a brightly painted tramcar carrying tram lovers and Calcutta Tram Corporation (CTC) employees through Kolkata’s streets.

Not everyone was impressed. “They are no more than great stumbling blocks on congested city roads,” was the opinion of one office-goer in this metropolis of more than 10 million people.

While Kolkatans are not sure whether running tramcars should continue to run on the streets for the sake of “Raj nostalgia”, they would still like to see them modernised so that they can have practical value as efficient, pollution-free transport.

Like the rundown condition of the once magnificent heritage mansions that dot the city, the decrepit tramcars tell a pathetic tale of government neglect and myopia.

But it is the very inertia and neglect, rather than any sense of heritage, which have thwarted efforts to phase out these quaint means of transportation.

Says Suzi Attwill: “The reasons for saving trams are always arguments like pollution, nostalgia and ability to carry a large number of people. But to me trams are unique spaces within a city. They are mobile public spaces where people gather and share a journey.”

“The fact that they follow a set route, tracks and schedule produces a rhythmic dimension to the city. To sit on a tram in Kolkata is a far more pleasurable experience than sitting in a taxi or a bus,” says Attwill, an Australian who is a big advocate of running trams in Kolkata.

Says scientist and local tram activist Debasish Bhattacharya: “For underground rail, both the capacity and investment are high and in case of the bus, investment as well as the capacity is low. The tram is the only vehicle where a minimum investment can carry a lot of people. Today the pathetic condition of tram service is due to poor planning and nothing else.”

“Trams have a non-users benefit, its pollution level is nil and it has a social benefit. If trams are given priority and allowed to function properly and not looked down upon as a secondary mode of transport, I think it can become the best means of conveyance,” Bhattacharya adds.

“Modernisation does not mean investment. It is how we can make trams more viable and appropriate for the age that is important,” Bhattacharya adds.

“If we have to maintain tram service just for the sake of heritage, I don’t think there is any justification in it. The place of heritage is in the museum. But it is totally pollution free and can carry more passengers than a bus and cheap,” says renowned sketch artist Rathin Mitra, who has made the city’s heritage spots his muse.

The ‘Tram Yatra’ has sharply divided people along political lines with the Trinamool Congress party, which rules the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, insisting that trams must go while the Left Front state government will not hear of it .

Scoffs Calcutta corporation mayor Subrata Mukherjee, “The latest drama of this festival is nothing but a big joke. The transport minister is only interested in playing to the gallery.”

“The pro-tram brigade should talk to residents of central Kolkata. We have received complaints of noise pollution and associated health hazards from those who live to the tram tracks. The condition of roads where trams run are in real bad shape. The Tram Company doesn’t even pay us for the damage,” he says.

“Roads comprise only six per cent of the city area with encroachment rampant in many localities. Under these conditions, the city just cannot afford trams — they belong in the museum,” Mukherjee says.

But state transport minister Subhas Chakraborty is defensive. “The festival has proved a huge success. How can you ignore heritage? How can you sacrifice something that is so beautiful on the altar of warped ideas of modernisation? Trams have been, are, and will continue to be a symbol of Calcutta,” he asserts.

Chakraborty has plans to extend the tram network and has already started modernisation of the cars. He says an American company has conducted a survey and a 125 million dollar pilot project will soon be launched.

But many remember that a 1995 agreement signed with a foreign company to modernise the trams came to nothing. Later, a German company showed interest in restructuring the tramways but that too fizzled out.

Trams have been plying in Kolkata since 1873 and the first experimental horse-drawn tramway was started between Sealdah station and Armenian Ghat on the banks of the Ganges river. The first electric tramcar rolled on to the tracks between Esplanade and Kidderpore on Mar. 27, 1902.