RAJ RAMBLER: A Sunday tram ride takes you to Kolkata’s heritage hotspots

The last time Arup Sarkar rode a tramcar in Kolkata was 40 years ago. Recently back in town, Sarkar, a non-resident Bengali settled in Germany, took a ride again and it seemed to him like nothing had changed. He was aboard one of the same trundling boxcars that had carried him across the city as a child. He and fellow nri Shyamal Sircar and their German wives had climbed into the bright red vehicle, now being run every Sunday as part of a heritage tour started by the Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC) and the Tourism Department, for veritable trip down memory lane. After an absence of almost four decades, Sarkar could not have found a more fitting way to rediscover north Kolkata.

Like Sarkar, Italian Maria Selva doesn’t know what she almost missed. The volunteer with Mother Teresa’s home has been to Kolkata “at least eight or nine times, but never got a chance to actually see the city”. Sitting by the curtained, plateglass window of the nattily refurbished heritage tramcar, Banalata—named after a character created by Bengali writer Jibananda Das who, incidentally, was run over by a tram—Selva’s head bobs left and right as she tries to make sense of the tour commentator’s broad Bengali accent. “That’s K.C. Das on your right—founder of the famous rosogolla. On your left is Jorasanko, the Tagores’ ancestral home. Take a look at Presidency College …”

The three-hour ride gives foreign tourists—and many south Kolkatans who avoid venturing into the congested north—an up-close view of other antique structures too. The Writers Buildings, the General Post Office, Nakhoda masjid, the Jain temples, the Pareshnath temple, the Black Pagoda, and so on. For Selva and her friend Elisabeth, the tram journey is more like an orientation trip. “I’m just taking a look,” says Selva, “so that I can come back later and explore many of the places.”

That’s exactly what intach (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) had in mind when it came up with a blueprint for the tour. “The whole of north Kolkata is like a huge heritage precinct,” says intach convener G.M. Kapur. “You can’t see everything at one go but the tram ride gives you the highlights.” Unwittingly, the project has also given a fresh lease of life to the Raj era vehicle, whose fate was as precarious as the thin wire connecting it to overhead electric lines.

A few years ago, the West Bengal Government was determined to do away with this rattler of a vehicle. “In the post-Gulf War oil crisis, when trams were making a comeback in many places in the world, the state government was thinking of dismantling it,” says Debashish Bhattacharya of Environment-Governed Integrated Organisation. The government’s intention, say activists, was not just to poach on the ctc’s estimated Rs 150 crore holdings but also to make commuting easier. Although around 2 per cent of the city’s commuters use them, the 170-odd trams running on various routes are considered too slow, causing nasty traffic snarls. Yet, the number of people using trams is comparable to that commuting on the Metro Railway, a faster mode of transport for sure. With the pro-tram lobby getting stronger, however, the government had to shelve its plans.

Several foreign teams have now been invited to assess the feasibility of this late 19th century vehicle as a 21st century transport. Since 1997, the state has organised several “tram festivals” with Melbourne city authorities. Recently, Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty promised a cricket match between India and Australia to promote the tram. The ctc heritage ride, however, is the biggest draw. At Rs 100 per head, it may not bring in much revenue on its Sunday runs, but it is the most appropriate vehicle from which to consider the city’s ancient sights.

Supporters of the outmoded tram are happy about its new role. But there are many who want to save it for what it offers. “The ride may have given Kolkata another reason to keep the tram,” says environmentalist Jayanta Basu who has been associated with the decade-long movement to save the tram, “but I object to it being called a heritage car. That way, you are actually relegating it to history.” Instead, say supporters, the state should upgrade facilities, lay new lines and turn the tram into a millennium car. One that will still be redolent of the years gone by—like Hong Kong’s boxcars, which are used for elegant tea parties—yet move fast enough to be less of a nuisance in Kolkata’s crammed thoroughfares. That is easily the best way to put the anachronistic trundler back on track.