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| Photo Credit: PTI

The Calcutta Tram Users Association (CTUA), comprising tram enthusiasts and supporters of conserving tramways in the city, has welcomed the Calcutta High Court order of January 14 to restore bituminised tram tracks.

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday (January 14, 2025) heard a petition filed by public interest group People United for Better Living in Calcutta (PUBLIC) over the alleged bituminisation of tram tracks in the city, in violation of an earlier order by the Calcutta High Court, and directed the tracks be restored.

According to Dr. Debasish Bhattacharyya, President of CTUA, in the last few months, multiple tram tracks in the city were bituminised i.e. covered with asphalt/bitumen and disabled for plying trams.

“In the order passed in the writ petition as well as in the order passed in the contempt petition, there was a specific direction that there should be no bituminisation of the tram track… It is very hard to believe that some miscreants would have done the bituminisation on a busy public road under public gaze and that the authorities concerned were oblivious of what was happening,” the division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya noted during the hearing of a contempt petition on Tuesday.

“Since the report shows that there was no direction for bituminisation, we direct that those tram tracks which were illegally bituminised to be restored and the bitumen be removed and a report be filed in this regard supported by photographs on the next hearing date,” the Chief Justice said during the Tuesday hearing.

This development comes amid mounting concerns over the sustenance of Kolkata’s tram network, the operations of which have been steadily reduced in recent years.

Dr. Debasish Bhattacharyya has called the Calcutta High Court’s order an “encouraging move in favour of the tramways”.

“The bituminisation of multiple tram routes in the city was done illegally. The anti-tram lobby, comprising the Kolkata Police, the West Bengal Transport Corporation and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, claim ignorance over who bituminised the tracks,” he told The Hindu. “For a long time, all three have been singing the same chorus, that tram tracks cause two-wheeler accidents. That is a lie,” he said.

According to him, at least two stretches of tram tracks, one near Hazra and one in Alipore, were bituminised in the last two months.

Dr. Bhattacharyya also said that the Chief Justice’s statements on Tuesday on the overall retention, restoration, maintenance, and modernisation of tramways in the city was a hopeful and positive development.

Notably, during the hearing, the Chief Justice emphasised that trams are a part of the city’s “cultural ethos” and also mentioned ways in which trams continue to ply in cities around the world, including through the middle of the road, akin to the design of the tram tracks in Kolkata.

“To our knowledge, in no other city in the country, trams are being operated. Dismantling and closing down the tram services is an easy task. But nonetheless, the respondent being a welfare state should also bear in mind to preserve the cultural heritage of the city of Kolkata,” the Chief Justice said during the Tuesday hearing.

Arghyadeep Hatua, a tram supporter and member of the Global Walkability Correspondents network, said, “It is just a step forward by the High Court; victory is yet far. Trams remain an integral mode of transport in Kolkata. It already has an extensive network and existing infrastructure that, with little investment, would reap huge benefits.”