Exhibition on old bus-related items held at Esplanade

Kolkata: In celebration of 100 years of route number 52 and the last operational wooden bus of Howrah/Kolkata districts belonging to route number 56, an exhibition of old bus-related items will be conducted at Esplanade, near Metro Cinema Hall on July 9.

Route number 52 will be brought from its terminus at Ramrajatala. Twenty-two buses operate in route number 52 while 18 buses operate in route number 56, according to the General Secretary of the Kolkata bus-o-pedia Aniket Banerjee.

Route 52 is from Ramrajatala to Esplanade via Natun Rasta, Netaji Subhas Road, Mullick Phatak, Howrah Maidan, Howrah Station, Burrabazar, BBD Bagh, and Route 56 is plied from Howrah Station to Ruiya Purbapara via Salkia, Belur, Bally, Dakhineswar, Dunlop, Rathtala, Sodepur.

Banerjee, who is working in the field of Molecular Biology and is a Prime Minister’s Research Fellow at IIT Guwahati, said: “Inside the bus we will be putting up an exhibition including old tickets, old fare charts and few details on the history of bus routes and there will be pictures of buses from each district of the state.”

The organisers got permission from Kolkata Police on Saturday to park the bus near Metro Cinema Hall for 40-45 minutes.

“We will keep the bus there for public viewing,” Banerjee said. There used to be tickets for Rs 1, Rs 2 which will be putting that on display.

According to Banerjee, an official of the state Transport department said that for the wooden bus, the owner of the bus needs to apply since it’s a privately owned bus so that they can preserve the route.

“Also we are working to make Route 52 a heritage route as it’s been there for over 100 years now. They said that if the syndicate gives them a letter then they will consider that,” Banerjee said.

“Wooden buses are a thing of the past. People hardly know about it so it’s full of nostalgia. We are still nostalgic about the trams. We like to preserve our heritage. The thing is that the trams have gotten a lot of attention. But there is a profound history of the buses of Kolkata as well,” he said.