OPEN LETTER: Trams are outdated

dear tram lovers, your worries have been set at rest. for the time being, that is. trams are not being banished from kolkata, at least in the next year or two. apparently, mr ashim dasgupta had made only a "suggestion" that they should be, and not announced a policy decision. it had raised hackles all round. the cpi(m) was surprised. its partners prepared for an all-out agitation.tramways employees' unions were indignant. finally, the tempest blew over as abruptly as it had risen. om shantih! but that does not guarantee that it will not return. for more than three decades now, abolition of the tramways has been discussed, rejected, partially agreed upon, debated, accepted and rejected again a number of times. sometimes, the authorities have decided to close down certain sections. but there has been stiff resistance because that is taken as an indication of a phased abolition. there are 7,000 employees and which government can afford to play around with them, specially when the employment market is shrinking by the day? way back in l969, when mr abdullah rasul was the transport minister, the government did take a similar decision. but there was such a hue and cry that the move had to be denied altogether. of course, there are arguments for retaining trams. they are pollution-free. their fuel does not have to be imported from the middle east. they are convenient for the aged and the handicapped. and they have heritage value. i am not strong on statistics, but i believe they do ply in more than sixty cities in the world even today. they have no appeal for the youth who want speed. in my youth, i seldom boarded a tram because a bus would take me much faster to my destination. but with the advancing years, i have come to prefer it to the ghastly minibuses which are virtually moving death traps. i am in no hurry now and the tram will do. besides, their inside is never as suffocating as that of a bus or a minibus. i can recollect my entire childhood and boyhood during a journey from tollygunge to esplanade - the speed being what it is - but one is unlikely to die of a collision or suffocation. but the fact remains that the tram is an anachronism, and in our bad old kolkata, it adds further to the chaos on the roads. what we need here is wider roads and faster traffic, and the tram, in most areas, is a hindrance, not a help. one shower, or a spell of load-shedding, and they come to a halt, throwing everything out of gear. every now and then, they go "outline", as in the tramways parlance, and there is instant chaos. a modern city needs fast movement, and a tram trundling down lenin sarani is not evocative of modernity or growth. it conjures the vision of an old man unable to walk because of the load on his shoulders. mr dasgupta may have overshot the mark, but it was about time the government thought of restricting the tram services to certain segments of the city. trams occupy 76 km of road space and in kolkata, that is no joke. we all have a soft corner for the tram, but one must move ahead, and not cling to useless things just because they belong to the "purono kolkata". the whole city would otherwise become what maurice hare had said, "there once was a man who said, 'damn! /it is borne in upon me i am/ an engine that moves/ in predestinate grooves/ i'm not even a bus, i'm a tram'."