Back on track: Tram services to resume on Rajabazar to Howrah Bridge route from today

Kolkata: In a step ahead to improve the transport facility in Kolkata, the West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC) is going to resume tram services on Rajabazar to Howrah Bridge route from Friday onwards.

This is the second route on which the tram service is going to resume after the same had started on Tollygunge-Ballygunge route on June 14.

Tram services were suspended due to the nationwide lockdown that was imposed on March 25. The situation turned worse with Super Cyclone Amphan causing damage to the infrastructure needed to run trams. As a result, all the six usual routes cannot be made operational in one go. The WBTC authorities are leaving no stone unturned in resuming the same on the remaining Gariahat-Esplanade, Shyambazar-Esplanade, Khidirpur-Sahid Minar and Bidhannagar-Rajabazar routes at the earliest. The trial run on Rajabazar-Howrah Bridge route was carried out on Thursday. "A thorough repairing work has been carried out by the transport corporation's engineering section to restore the overhead wires those had snapped due to the cyclone that hit Kolkata at a speed of around 145 km per hour and finally the tram service on the route will be available from Friday," said a senior official of the state Transport department. Wearing masks and maintaining to other protocols by passengers is a must while travelling in them. Tram service has become immensely successful on the Tollygunge-Ballygunge route as in just two days after it resumed, the frequency had to be increased by bringing down the interval to 25 minutes from 40 minutes. The tram service will be available from 7 am to 8 pm at an interval of 30 minutes initially on Rajabazar to Howrah Bridge route. At present 10 trams operate on Tollygunge-Ballygunge route and the same number will be operating on Rajabazar-Ballygunge route.

Artwork depicting tram's rich heritage will also be put up at each compartment carrying a message in all three languages (Bengali, Hindi and English) requesting people to keep trams clean.