Kolkata: The state Transport department will gradually revive all the tram routes in the Kolkata, majority of which are presently closed due to metro work in different parts of the city. Two of these routes Khidirpur to Esplanade and Bidhannagar to Rajabazar are expected to be rolled out before the Durga Puja itself.
"We have already floated tender for overhead wires, traction poles supply, erection etc. The approximate cost involved in the two routes will be Rs 1.3 crore and 75 lacs respectively," Managing Director of West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC) Rajanvir Singh Kapur said, speaking at a session on Sustainable Mobility and Urban Planning.
These two routes are still suspended due to some pending repair works post Cyclone Amphan that hit the state in May 2020. Major parts of the tracks were damaged by trees and the overhead wire system was also jeopardized.
According to a senior official, WBTC is presently operating tram services in two routes- Gariahat-Esplanade and Tollygunge-Ballygunge.
Before Cyclone Amphan, six routes were operational in the Kolkata tramway network. After Amphan, the WBTC worked day-in-and-out and restored 5 out of 6 routes in the months that followed.
The five routes that got restarted were Tollygunge to Ballygunge route, Rajabazar to Howrah Bridge route, Gariahat to Esplanade, Esplanade Shyambazar and Howrah to Shyambazar route. At present, out of these 3 routes are temporarily suspended due to ongoing Kolkata metro work.
"We will restore all the feasible tram routes considering the fact that we are taking significant strides in e-mobility to reduce pollution in the city," Firhad Hakim, state Transport minister said.
WBTC has already written to the Metro Railways seeking a time frame about the completion of work of the projects involving in and around the tram tracks so that a plan for revival of the routes can be worked out.
Kapur said that WBTC is working upon converting its entire fleet into electric buses by 2025.
An electric mobility start-up, has already announced setting up of an electric bus manufacturing unit in Bengal. The company that aims to roll out its first bus by February 2023, it plans to produce 1500 electric buses per annum as per demand.