Transport Minister Snehasis Chakraborty, as a representative of the West Bengal government, has announced that the iconic Kolkata trams will be discontinued soon. However, they have decided to continue the solitary heritage stretch from Maidan to Esplanade. Kolkata is the only city left in India that still operates, and recently celebrated its 150th anniversary.This has hurt people’s sentiments and many of the tram lovers have decided to protest against the decision. Chakraborty said that the slow-moving trams are inconvenient as commuters need faster modes of transport.
Now considered slow-paced and old, when the trams were introduced in Kolkata for the first time, they were a popular mode of transport. The very first trams, introduced in 1873 in the British capital Calcutta, were horse-drawn. They operated on the 3.8 km path between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street. However, they were discontinued within a year due to economic issues.
In 1874, these horse-driven tramcars had reached Bombay and traveled along two paths—Colaba to Pydhonie via Crawford Market, and Bori Bunder to Pydhonie. Slowly, the tram taxis started operating in Nashik along an 8 km path and in 1886, tramcars were popular in Patna, Bihar. However, these cars were not viable as they required too much horse labor.
The trams in Calcutta were revived by Lord Ripon in 1880, as a result of which The Calcutta Tramway Company experimented with pulling these trams using steam locomotives to make them economically viable. While the speed of the tramcars improved, it brought with it another set of problems like pollution. This became one of the reasons why other states never transitioned their trams from horse-drawn to steam locomotives.
In 1895, Madras (present-day Chennai) introduced the country’s first-ever electric tramcars. These vehicles connected the city’s coastal areas with the inland areas. They were better than the steam-powered trams, as they produced less noise and less pollution. Calcutta too upgraded its trams to electric-powered ones by 1902—with the first one plying between Esplanade and Kidderpore, and Esplanade and Kalighat.
Slowly, tram lines were built in Kanpur, Delhi, and Bombay too. But this glory was not long-lived. Owing to better alternate transport means, and economic viability, the trams slowly started dying. Patna was the first city to discontinue trams in 1903, citing reasons of low ridership. Then came Nashik and Kanpur in 1933, Madras in 1953, followed by Delhi and Bombay in 1963 and 1964 respectively. Kolkata was the only city that didn’t sever its ties with the past. For 150 years, the trams transported people and goods across the city. However, it seems that Bengal too has given up on these old, slow trams, which served as a cultural identity for Kolkata for so long.