West Bengal government's transport minister Snehashish Chakraborti has announced the imminent closure of Kolkata's 150-year old tram system. The tram services in Kolkata have already been heavily truncated. It would soon be a relic of the past. A short journey through the verdant green of Maidan would be run as a heritage ride as a reminder of the past glory.

The trams, the powers that be in this state feel are a drag on the city's bid to be a modern metropolis. So it goes. Long before the state transport minister had pronounced his judgement of dispensing with trams, it has been a part and parcel of what was then called Calcutta. It was considered to be a safe form of transportation for the elderly and school children.

Many a couple with decades of matrimony will fondly recall how they whispered sweet nothings into each other's ears sitting on the window-side seat of a near empty tram. Perhaps a near vacant tram with a hand holding couple on board was the first pointer to the present state of things when this light railway system trundled to the verge of extinction having been truncated beyond recognition.

Trams are a part and parcel of the spirit of Kolkata. And perish the thought, if someone feels otherwise. Kolkatans have a penchant of rising in protest. Often violence liberally lace these agitations though the ongoing one against the rape and murder of a junior doctor has nothing to do with the severity and savagery that characterised yesteryear agitations.

And trams in 1950’s owned by overseas owners bore the brunt of the ire of people angered by a one paisa fare rise. If it was supported by the Opposition, the agitation against rise in tram fare had also the full support of a populace disillusioned by a new found independence.

Thirteen Trams were set on fire. Realising the depth and intensity of the people's anger, the government of the day in 1953 could take very little measures against the agitators. The trams were continued to be looked upon as soft targets of agitators who attacked them off and on. Even after the end of a football game in maidan, the agitated supporters of a particular club vented their anger against their rival club or referee by attacking the plying trams nearby. The docile slow moving vehicle of transport bore the brunt stoically.

Being an unwieldy form of transport in a city which has only 6 per cent road surface, trams are sources of traffic snarls. With Metro running from one end of the city to the other, the Kolkatans suddenly seemed to be in a hurry.

And in their eagerness to have a faster journey to their work places, many Kolkatans chose to forget that trams were sans any form of pollution. No smoke nor steam ever gushed out of any tram, moving or stationary.

The institutional and collective disenchant towards city's tram cars is strange. The efforts to make trams almost a museum piece seem to be a pointer that powers that be are out of sync with the trend to make this graceful and pollution free transport a part of the mainstream public careers.

All over the world, the trams are being retrofitted and reintroduced as a clean, affordable means of public transportation. Popularity of trackless trams are on the rise in China which has populous cities. Tram services are resurgent in many countries. Modern trams have a significant role in addressing vehicular pollution, a 21st century scourge.

Of late, Kolkata has witnessed a significant rise in the number of private vehicles in it's streets. It has also the highest vehicular density among the metropolises. Trams can help decongest the traffic snarls post modernisation. It ought to be given a new lease of life instead of being led to the path of extinction. (IPA Service)