With Govt Apathy, Heritage Kolkata Tramways Company Heading to Its Death

Kolkata: Asia’s only electric tramway that is in operation in Kolkata, West Bengal, is gradually being choked to death.

The number of tram passengers, daily revenue and the number of staff have dwindled over time. “During 9 O’ clock in the morning we enter our jail premises (workshops without any work) and until 5 our torture continues as we sit there idly without any work,” said Subir Basu, an employee of the West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC) that runs the tramways.

It is the WBTC employees who had worked for the future of the corporation by making a renovated, modern and light-weight tram with fibre body and transparent roofs to attune it to the present times as the rolling stocks rolled by on Kolkata roads. The Kolkata tramways, started in 1873, is the oldest operating tramways in Asia and one of the oldest modes of public transportation in the city.

The tram service used to be well-networked and extensive while the low fares provided an affordable ride for the common people. Many argue that the trams could provide a sustainable solution to the city’s growing traffic and shrinking road space while also being an alternative to vehicles operating with fossil-fuel. However, with dedicated tramlines being used up by moving traffic and the lack of pro-active government support, the tram services have been reduced to being a token part of Kolkata’s heritage.

Now, one by one the tram depots and the lands of the workshops are being handed over to private entities. Over Rs 300 crores of funds generated from the sale of assets of the tramways have been transferred to the government while the century-plus organisation still suffers from funds crunch.

According to Communist Party of India (Marxist) veteran Rajdeo Goala, who as a tramways worker in 1946 had helped thwart the Calcutta riots and was later elevated as the chairman of the corporation, alleged that there was a conspiracy  to sell the WBTC as a heritage entity or dismantle it. He added that this was being done by suppressing the workers.   

According to Basu and his fellow workers in WBTC such as Tapas Adhikary, the golden period of Calcutta Tramways was between 1978 and 1987. In 1977-78, when the Left Front had just assumed power in the state, MD Amin, the then Minister of Transport in the West Bengal government had ordered 159 Jessop and Burn standard -body tram cars and invested Rs 43 crores for the betterment of tram services across the city.

The tramways had been at the centre of transportation in the city until the “neo-liberal regime” set in the country, recounted Bose while speaking to Newsclick. He said that in 1993, within the matter of a night, the planned support of the Indian government to CTC was withdrawn within a night paving the way for a huge crisis in the Calcutta tramways then.

When the British owners had withdrawn from the Calcutta Tramways Company or CTC (later dissolved and taken over by WBTC), then there were 13,500 employees in the company. In 1977-78, there were 7,500 employees in the Calcutta Tramways. Then in the 90s, the total tramline in the city ran for 74 kilometres and 472 holding cars were in operation (holding cars are cars in the hand of the company), out of which 385 cars were in enroute condition.

Amidst this situation, on November 4, 1992, bus services were introduced under the CTC with thousands of new recruitments. The next betterment initiative for the tramways came in 2009 when the new single-body trams were introduced and tramlines were planned to be extended to Rajarhat in North 24 Parganas.

After the change in regime in West Bengal in 2011, the Calcutta Tramways faced its biggest crisis as within a single night the Dharmatolla-Joka route was discontinued by the Trinamool-Congress led state government. The wages of 278 workers recruited as permanent workers within the period of 2008-2011 were discontinued leading to suicides by the two of the affected employees. With new recruitments closed, in 2011 there were 7,300 regular employees and 272 casual employees in the WBTC but it has come down to 2,400 permanent and 272 casual employees and while jobs are being outsourced to other companies.

Right now, in the WBTC, there are 253 tramcars in operation, out of which 103 are in running condition while roughly 25 cars run on the routes every day. At present, the tramway operates on only three routes with all others routes closed for usage. In 2011, the tramcars used to run on 25-28 routes. Tram is now being changed to just a token transportation system, rued Bose.

In 2011, there were 62 kms of serviceable line apart from depot land; at present, that has been reduced to only 17 kms of line spread across three routes. Earlier, on the 62 km route, 225 tram cars used to run while now, 25 tram cars are running on the 17 km route. The number of passengers has also decreased from more than 1 lakh in 2011 to only eight to nine thousand passengers per day on the reduced route.

The discussion to close down the tramways has gained momentum again while earlier rounds of this type of talks were thwarted by the positive public image that the tramways carry as an eco-friendly mode of transport. Roberto Andrea, an Australian tram conductor from Melbourne, too helped bring forth a positive image of tramways in India.

Kolkata bus-o-pedia regularly conducts joyrides on the trams clicking pictures and taking signatures from passengers while urging the government not to close the century-old heritage entity.