Two days after tram services resumed on the renovated 2.2-km stretch between Gariahat and Park Circus, the CPM?s labour wing Citu on Monday demanded that the tracks be relaid under the flyover, too.

Citu, which controls over 80 per cent of the 6,000-odd employees of the Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC), wants resumption of services between Ballygunge station and the Gariahat depot.

?Tracks should immediately be relaid on the 600-metre stretch between the depot and Gariahat junction. This will help hundreds of commuters, including schoolchildren and the aged, who could avail of the services from the Ballygunge terminus,? said Pralay Dasgupta, general secretary of the Calcutta Tramways Workers? and Employees? Union.

Besides, trams can also be taken to the Ballygunge terminus for maintenance. ?At the Gariahat depot, we have a skeletal staff for maintenance. But at Ballygunge, there is a full-fledged arrangement,? he added. Citu, he warned, will oppose the government?s plan for ?commercial utilisation? of the tram depot if tracks are not relaid under the flyover.

?Our demand is justified. Our engineers, too, are of the opinion that the tracks can be easily relaid on the 600-metre stretch,? Dasgupta asserted.

He suggested that tracks could be laid on both sides of the road on the flyover?s approach end.

Citu had first placed the proposal at a meeting with transport minister Subhas Chakraborty and departmental secretary Sumantra Chowdhury last month. The government, Dasgupta claimed, had promised to consider it ?favourably?.

?Another round of discussion will be held next month,? he informed mediapersons.

Backing Dasgupta?s demand, CTC chairman and Citu leader Rajdeo Goala said: ?We have requested the government to take note of the suggestion.?

Goala refused to comment on Citu?s arm-twisting tactics, but senior CTC officials accused the ?belligerent trade union? of getting in the way of the proposed commercial utilisation of the Gariahat depot.

?Though we?ve published advertisements inviting expression of intent from potential parties, we cannot float tenders because of Citu?s stiff opposition,? said an official.

Mayor Subrata Mukherjee, however, is opposed to the Citu?s demand on the grounds that ?tram tracks below the flyover will lead to traffic snarls on either side of it?.