Tram cars to be resurrected in Navi Mumbai

"We are considering a pilot project in Navi Mumbai and have written to the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation seeking their approval to carry out feasibility studies," Sanjay Ubale, Secretary (Special Projects) said. 

Navi Mumbai, presently with a smaller population than Mumbai, could face problems of congestion in future and trams were expected to help ease them, he said.  "Navi Mumbai's streets also have the require road width to provide space for the tracks which would make it easier to implement tram systems there," Ubale said. 

The electric tram car in Mumbai operated in 1907 with its first ceremonial journey from the civic headquarters in south Mumbai to the nearby Crawford Market, now renamed the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Market.  It ran its last route on March 31, 1964. 

The re-introduction of trams is also expected to change people's perception of them as being an antiquated mode of transport that cannot be used in the modern age, Ubale said. 

The model expected to be used is on the lines of tram systems in Europe where air-conditioned trams operate in city centres and are often used to convert areas into no-entry zones for private vehicles, a planner associated with the project said.