Aditya Goenka
498 posts
🚃 HERITAGE & CULTURE | KOLKATA In 1873, Kolkata gave Asia its first tram. 152 years later, the city is fighting to keep its last one alive. This may be the most bittersweet transport story in Bengal’s history. 🧵👇 🕰️ THE BIRTH OF AN ICON It began on a single track. 3.9 kilometres. Horse-drawn. Sealdah to Armenian Ghat. The year was 1873 — two years before Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. On 24 February 1873, the first tram in Asia began running in Calcutta. The service initially lasted only about a month and was suspended due to lack of demand. But the dream was too powerful to abandon. The Calcutta Tramways Company was formally constituted in 1880 — laying metre-gauge tracks, reintroducing horse trams, and even briefly experimenting with steam-powered trams in the early 1880s. Then came the moment that changed everything. In 1900 electrification began, and on 27 March 1902, the first electric tramcar ran from Esplanade to Kidderpore. This made Kolkata the first city in all of Asia to operate electric tramways. -Not Tokyo. -Not Shanghai. -Not Singapore. Kolkata 🩷 কলকাতার ট্রাম — এশিয়ার প্রথম বৈদ্যুতিক পথচলা। Kolkata’s tram — Asia’s first electric journey. Today, Kolkata’s tram system remains one of the oldest continuously operating tram networks in the world. 🌟 THE GOLDEN AGE By the mid-20th century, the Calcutta tram was not just a vehicle. It was the circulatory system of an entire city. By the 1960s — the undisputed golden age — the network operated around 37 routes across Kolkata and Howrah. The system had: ▸ Around 67 kilometres of track ▸ A fleet of roughly 450 tramcars ▸ Hundreds of thousands of passengers every day The tram was the working man’s chariot. The student’s commute. The mill worker’s lifeline. With fares so low that workers and students could easily afford them, the tram carried Bengali society across class lines — the professor and the fish seller, the lawyer and the labourer, sharing the same wooden bench, watching the same city roll by at 15 km/h. Satyajit Ray filmed it. Ritwik Ghatak used it as metaphor. Mrinal Sen framed it against the Howrah Bridge. The tram wasn’t just transportation — it was Kolkata’s personality on rails. এই ট্রামে শুধু মানুষ নয়, বাংলার ইতিহাস চলত। These trams carried not just people — but Bengal’s history. 📉 THE LONG DECLINE The decline began with a mindset — not a malfunction. In the 1970s, global thinking declared trams obsolete. Buses were modern. Cars were progress. The tram — slow, fixed-track, sharing the road — was suddenly seen as the villain of congestion. Cities across India dismantled their systems. Mumbai removed its trams in 1964. Delhi closed its network soon after. Chennai followed. Kolkata kept going. But barely. On 8 November 1976, the Calcutta Tramways Company was nationalised. Over the following decades: -Routes closed. -Depots shut down. -Tracks were paved over. -The fleet steadily shrank. By the 1990s, serious plans were proposed to close the network entirely. What helped revive global interest in Kolkata’s trams was something unexpected. In 1994, Melbourne tram conductor Roberto D’Andrea visited Kolkata, fell in love with its trams and workers, and helped spark an international cultural exchange. The Tramjatra Festival was born — linking tram workers and artists from Melbourne and Kolkata, turning the tram into a cultural symbol worth preserving. An Australian helped ignite a global movement to protect Kolkata’s trams. Think about that. ⚖️ THE BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL: 2024–2025 Fast forward to 2024. The West Bengal government announced plans to close most tram services, retaining only a small heritage route between Maidan and Esplanade. The reason given: traffic congestion. Kolkata erupted. Filmmaker Goutam Ghose said what many were thinking: “The Howrah Bridge, trams and yellow taxis are Kolkata’s icons. Globally trams are popular — we should modernise them, not destroy them.” Citizens organised protests. The Calcutta Tram Users Association (@CTUA) — formed in 2016 — challenged the closure. The Calcutta High Court intervened, seeking detailed reports before any permanent removal of tram infrastructure. The debate is ongoing. But one thing became clear. বাংলার মানুষ তার ট্রামকে ছাড়েনি। Bengal’s people have not abandoned their tram. 🌍 WHAT THE WORLD KNOWS THAT KOLKATA FORGOT Around the world, the story of trams went in the opposite direction. Today: ▸ 450+ cities operate tram systems ▸ Dozens of cities have rebuilt tram networks they once removed ▸ Cities denser than Kolkata — Paris, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Toronto — rely heavily on trams Why? Because trams are: ▸ Zero direct emissions ▸ Quiet and energy efficient ▸ Able to replace 50–70 cars on a road The argument that trams cause congestion is the same argument London made when it removed its trams in the 1950s. Today London has spent billions rebuilding modern tram lines. Sometimes cities realise too late what they lost. 🌟 THE POSITIVE NOTE Kolkata’s trams are more than transportation. During moments of social tension in the city’s history, the steady movement of trams through mixed neighbourhoods created everyday contact between communities. The tram became community on rails. The Smaranika Tram Museum at Esplanade preserves this history — displaying original tram parts, tickets and mechanical components from a system that once defined the city. 152 years ago, a horse pulled a wooden carriage along 3.9 kilometres of track in Calcutta. Asia had never seen anything like it. Today, a citizens’ movement, heritage activists and the stubborn pride of Kolkata are keeping that story alive. The tram is slow. That is precisely the point. In a city that moves too fast and remembers too little — the tram forces you to look out the window. To see the city. To feel it. কলকাতার ট্রাম শুধু একটা যান নয়। এটা আমাদের আত্মা। 🚃❤️ Kolkata’s tram is not just a vehicle. It is our soul.🚃❤️ @WBGOVT @MamataOfficial @kmc_kolkata @Kolkata @KolkataTCOE @nkda_mar @new_townkolkata @KolkataTCOE @KolkataPlus @_CTUA_ @projectmcra
Had a informative podcast at Zee news today, don't miss it! Coming soon
