Farewell to trams from Kolkata

From Newsbuddy Desk

Kolkata (Team Newsbuddy) : Removing the tram from a mode of transport in Kolkata and limiting it to just a heritage is an example of short-sightedness. Just last year, Kolkata celebrated the completion of 150 years of tram service with great pomp. At one time, four hundred trams used to run on four hundred routes of the city. Even a decade ago, about two hundred and seventy five trams used to run on thirty-five routes. By the end, fifteen trams used to run on two routes. As a result, about 250 trams worth crores of rupees were rotting in the tram depot. The script for the farewell of the tram was already written during the Left Front government. The intention behind this was to earn thousands of…
Apart from being a popular mode of transport, it has also influenced literature and films knowingly or unknowingly. Jibanananda Das, who died in a tram accident, had seen the tram as a primitive serpent in his poem. From Satyajit Ray to Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak, to portray Kolkata, trams were shown in their films after Howrah Bridge and Victoria Memorial. Trams of Kolkata are there in many Hindi films. In the year 1943, during the Second World War, when the British were unable to muster the courage to open Howrah Bridge, trams were taking the risk of ferrying passengers across the bridge in the dark of the night. In the year 1953, a one paisa increase in the fare created a storm in Kolkata and left politics got a chance to gain a foothold in the politics of West Bengal. It was because of the tram that Kolkata became a partner of the faraway Australian city of Melbourne. A society named ‘Tramyatra’ was formed between the two countries in 1996. Through this, the process of decorating Kolkata’s trams like Melbourne began and a tram library was also started. About two decades ago, a heritage tram route named ‘Vanlata’ was also created after Vanlata Sen, the author of Jivanananda Das’s famous poem