In a city as historically layered and socially textured as Calcutta, the tram is more than just a vehicle; it is a civic statement. It embodies inclusion, accessibility, and public memory. Yet this quiet, efficient, and heritage-rich system is being steadily dismantled, not by public demand or urban necessity but by policy neglect and institutional silence.
Calcutta remains Asia’s only city with an operational electric tram network, tracing its roots to the 1870s. What was once a dense, 60-kilometre mesh of tracks has now withered into a handful of struggling lines. Despite well-documented environmental, health, and social benefits, the West Bengal government proposes to retain only a single route, primarily for tourism. This confuses visibility with vitality, reducing a living system to a hollow spectacle. Worryingly, this retreat is unfolding without statutory consultation, transparent policy, or public reasoning. Depots in high-value urban areas are being emptied, often for real estate ventures. Public infrastructure is being quietly recast as speculative capital.
The dismantling of Calcutta’s tram system demands not only moral scrutiny but also constitutional interrogation. Under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Right to Life has been expansively interpreted to include the rights to a healthy environment, urban heritage, and participatory governance. In Intellectuals Forum, Tirupathi vs. State of Andhra Pradesh (2006), the Supreme Court held that economic expediency cannot override environmental or cultural preservation. Likewise, in Bangalore Medical Trust vs. B.S. Muddappa (1991), the court stressed that once land is designated for public use, it cannot be repurposed without open and accountable processes.
Calcutta’s tram network is part of the city’s living heritage and civic commons. The state’s plan to phase out Calcutta’s tram system contradicts the 2018 ‘Comprehensive Air Quality Action Plan for Kolkata’ mandated by the National Green Tribunal. Targeting a 20-30% PM2.5 reduction, the plan prioritises zero-emission transport like trams. With vehicles contributing 45% of NOx and 32% of PM in urban areas, a conservative estimate suggests tram expansion could cut PM10, PM2.5, and NOx by 10-20% in key corridors by replacing diesel vehicles and easing congestion. Dismantling trams disregards the NGT’s environmental and legal directives. In June 2023, the Calcutta High Court constituted an expert advisory committee to evaluate the preservation and the revival of tram routes after allegations of illegal track removals and depot abandonment. Recognising trams as historical and eco-friendly infrastructure, the court’s intervention awaits results even as the committee’s lack of publicly known tangible outcomes questions its intention, effectiveness and structure. In a state lacking a notified urban transport policy, judicial oversight can only ensure constitutional guardianship.
Under Section 427 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980, the KMC is tasked with protecting civic and cultural heritage. Trams, tracks and depots, century-old enduring fixtures, fall within this remit. Section 2(d) of the West Bengal Heritage Commission Act, 2001 empowers their preservation. Yet, the Heritage Commission, the only such body in India, has been notably silent. Further, Sections 11A and 11B of the KMC Act enable citizen participation through Ward Committees and Area Sabhas, but no consultation records exist for tram discontinuations, raising serious concerns about public trust doctrine and democratic accountability.
The government’s tram phase-out contradicts its own long-term planning. The Kolkata Comprehensive Mobility Plan (2001-2025) in 2001, approved by the Kolkata Metropolitan Planning Committee in January 2006, projected that trams would remain a stable mode of public transport, with daily ridership expected to increase from 2 lakh passengers in 2000 to 10 lakh in 2025, a 400% rise in passenger movement. By neglecting these stated policy goals and reducing tram services to a token heritage line, the state undermines its vision for sustainable, inclusive mobility and disregards both environmental mandates and its own strategic planning framework.
Globally, cities such as Zurich, Amsterdam, Freiburg and Vienna have integrated trams into their transport ecosystems, not as relics but as key instruments of climate resilience, urban equity, and commuter mobility. Melbourne operates the world’s largest tram network, spanning 250 kilometres and serving diverse urban zones. Bordeaux reintroduced trams in 2003, citing their success in reducing traffic congestion, cutting emissions, and revitalising its historic centre. In North African cities like Casablanca and Tunis, new tram lines have reconnected peripheral, often marginalised, neighbourhoods with central urban areas, helping lower travel costs and bridge spatial inequalities. Calcutta, on the other hand, is abandoning a mode others are investing in at a time when the city faces severe environmental degradation. The Lancet Planetary Health links 7.2% of daily deaths in India’s major cities, including Calcutta, to PM2.5 exposure above WHO’s 15 µg/m³ threshold, with winter levels often exceeding 100 µg/m³. International studies, including those from European Commission’s JRC and European Union’s CIVITAS programme, also show that cities with tram-centric mobility have lower PM2.5 concentrations, reduced per capita transport emissions, and higher public health indicators, particularly in respiratory and cardiac health.
Calcutta’s trams are non-polluting, quiet and promote walkability with safe, predictable routes. Highly accessible, they require no stairs or digital interfaces, serving the elderly, disabled, and digitally unsound. Far from nostalgia, trams ensure dignified mobility and sustainability. Yet their systemic benefits are ignored, undermining environmental goals and inclusive urban access.
UNESCO has recognised West Bengal as a heritage destination, yet Calcutta dismantles its most democratic form of living heritage. Trams are heritage in motion, passing through colonial quarters, swadeshi-era streets, parks, bookstalls, and protest sites. Their disappearance would not be a mere policy decision; it would symbolise a deeper unravelling of the city’s civic identity and memory.
The solution lies not in grand reinvention, but in thoughtful restoration. Much of Calcutta’s tram infrastructure remains intact; the tracks are repairable, and the electric supply system, though aged, is functional. What is required is modernisation: integration with bus and metro systems, low-floor trams, improved scheduling, and, above all, institutional will. Legally, the tram network merits recognition as civic heritage and as priority infrastructure for climate-friendly transport, vital for India’s Paris Agreement commitments. A time-bound revival plan with dedicated budgetary provision is urgent. Any proposed route discontinuation must be preceded by public consultations, ward-level hearings, and independent environmental and transport impact assessment studies. Courts must scrutinise whether urban development carried out without public participation and independent expert assessments meets the test of constitutional validity.
Calcutta has the chance to prove that tradition and modernity need not be in conflict; they can run on the same track. As the Calcutta Tram Users’ Association pursues its legal challenge, now pending before the Supreme Court, the issue is no longer whether trams should survive, but whether we are willing to defend the right to the city itself.
Amitabha Sarkar is a Public Health Fellow at the Health Sciences Unit of Tampere University, Finland, and a Research Associate at the Albert Hirschman Democracy Centre of the Geneva Graduate Institute
