The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has told the state transport department that trams should be running on only four routes, mayor Firhad Hakim told the civic house on Saturday.
Hakim later said the transport department had sought the KMC’s views.
The mayor added that it was not possible to run trams on more than four routes when told that tram enthusiasts want more routes to be operational.
Running trams is possible only on wide roads, not on narrow roads like Rabindra Sarani (Chitpore Road), Hakim said.
On August 7, Calcutta High Court formed an advisory committee that will work towards the preservation of trams.
The committee includes state transport department officials; members of the Calcutta Tram Users’ Association, a group of tram lovers; a green activist; and a member of the state heritage commission.
A former director-general of the KMC’s town planning department is also part of the committee.
“Trams can run on four routes. We had a meeting with the transport department where we expressed our stand,” Hakim said at the house.
He later told reporters that trams running on narrow roads lead to traffic snarls. “This slows down vehiclesand leads to air pollution,” he said.
“There are many roads where trams are not running for many years. The tracks are still there and these are causing accidents. There is an ongoing court case and there are some restrictions,” he added.
The high court had in an earlier hearing asked the state government to stop pouring bitumen over any remaining tram tracks.
“We had a meeting with the transport department. They sought our (KMC’s) opinion on trams. We told the transport department that trams should be running on four routes. It is up to the department to accept or reject our suggestion,” he said.
What Hakim said was in line with what the state’s transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty had said while flagging off the 150 years celebrations of Kolkata’s trams at the Esplanade bus terminus in February.
Chakraborty had said trams will run on “four or five routes” and “it would not be possible” to run them on all routes like before.
But tram lovers who have been protesting the government’s policy of cutting down the number of tram routes said trams should be running at least on all routes where tracks are still present in the city.
“There are seven tram depots, one workshop and tracks along many roads. It is perfectly possible to run trams on many more roads. Even in 2017, trams were running in over 20 routes in Kolkata,” said Debashis Bhattacharya of the Calcutta Trams Users Association, which is advocating a wider tram network in Kolkata.
Bhattacharya is one of the members of the court-appointed advisory committee on trams.
“The number of people that one tram can carry is equivalent to what many cars would carry. Trams are a good mode of public transport and they actually reduce congestion,” he said.
The three routes where trams are now running are 24/29 (Ballygunge-Tollygunge), 5 (Shyambazar-Esplanade) and 25 (Gariahat-Esplanade), said Bhattacharya.
Hakim said the other route where trams should run is between Esplanade and Kidderpore.
