Back to the future: Can Kolkata's iconic trams make a grand comeback?

Under a new BJP govt in West Bengal, the tram is being offered the hope of a second life in Kolkata

A grey Kolkata sky looms over a tram’s pantograph tracing the overhead wire. For nearly two minutes, the image holds in Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar (The Big City) as the opening credits roll — an establishing shot of a city and its lifeline. 

Set in the 1950s, the film — part of Ray’s famed cinematic engagement with the eastern metropolis — portrays the anxieties of urban life, with the tram making an unremarkable yet indispensable presence. 

Decades later, that once-vital mode of transport, featured in countless films and synonymous with an older Kolkata, has become a relic of a different city, its metal tracks increasingly at odds with the metropolis. 

Now, under a new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in West Bengal, the tram is being offered the hope of a second life in Kolkata. The question is: Can it move beyond nostalgia and earn a place in Kolkata’s urban future? 

Plotting a comeback 

On September 28, the transport department of West Bengal issued a letter of award to RITES, to conduct a feasibility study for the revival, modernisation and network expansion of tram services in Kolkata. The public sector enterprise specialises in transport consultancy and engineering. 

Ravi Inder Singh, principal secretary in the state transport department, said work has been underway for the past one month. “In another 2-2.5 months, the feasibility study and the detailed project report will be ready. We have asked RITES to deploy extra teams for the survey.” 

RITES confirmed it has been entrusted with the job of undertaking a study on the possible revival and development of tram services in Kolkata. It is conducting field surveys and meeting various stakeholders to understand the existing situation, operational requirements and infrastructure needs, and to examine all possibilities. 

The final recommendations will be prepared after completing the ongoing surveys and stakeholder consultations, said RITES.

Apart from the existing routes, the government reportedly plans to expand the tram network to create a direct link between the Dakshineswar and Kalighat temples, while extending the services to Rajarhat, New Town and Salt Lake. 

For a much-loved transport system all but written off by the previous regime, the proposed revival offers a fresh lease of life. 

The long slide  

Tram advocates say its decline has been systemic, spanning successive regimes. 

Of the 27 existing tram routes, only two are operational today. In 2011, the year Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power, Kolkata had 37 routes. By 2017, that number had fallen to 15, and by 2022, to two. 

The TMC government argued that Kolkata’s high population density and limited road space made it unviable to operate trams across all routes, but cleared one or two heritage routes. Roads account for about 6 per cent of Kolkata’s total land area — a relatively low share for a major metropolis. 

Debasish Bhattacharyya, president of the Calcutta Tram Users Association (CTUA), which is fighting to preserve the transport system, said that while the tram was saved from extinction after the British left and the Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC) was nationalised, little was done beyond that. 

The West Bengal government took over the management of CTC in 1967 and formally acquired the undertaking in 1976.

Bhattacharyya recalled that the Left Front government, which came to power in 1977, began deprioritising trams in the 1990s, with its transport minister Shyamal Chakraborty declaring trams were obsolete and would “die a natural death”. 

The last major investment in the network came back in the 1980s, when steel-bodied tram cars were introduced with World Bank funding, Bhattacharyya said. “Under the TMC, the decline accelerated, with tracks paved over, depots sold and investment in infrastructure stopped.” 

Mahadeb Shi, general secretary of the CTUA and cofounder of Tramjatra, a collaboration between Melbourne and Kolkata tram enthusiasts, agreed that much of the network’s decline had taken place during the TMC tenure.  

But then, in the run-up to the West Bengal assembly election this year, some BJP leaders lent their voice to the campaign to save the trams, he said. “We are hopeful that with RITES being appointed, the tram network will be revived. But 

we were also hoping for some immediate action after the elections. With very little work, some of the routes can be easily revived — one such is the  24/29 between Tollygunge and Ballygunge.”  

In recent years, the fight to save the tram has played out both on the streets and in the courtroom, with public interest litigations filed in the Calcutta High Court. 

Bonani Kakkar, founder-president of People United for Better Living in Calcutta (PUBLIC), a not-for-profit organisation, said a stay was secured in May 2023 against the state’s move to cover tram tracks with bitumen. 

“When the court order was violated at least twice, we filed a contempt application in August 2024 in the high court. However, the state moved a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court in February 2026.” 

Now in power in West Bengal, the BJP has publicly expressed its intent to revive the tram network, Kakkar said. “So, in June, we wrote to Transport Minister Arjun Singh, requesting the government to withdraw the SLP.” 

But Kakkar expressed disappointment that the state Budget presented in June made no provision for trams. 

However, it is understood that the transport department is in the process of withdrawing the case in the apex court— a move that would reinforce the government’s stated intent to revive Asia’s oldest electric tram system, the only one still operational in India. 

Popular, globally 

Kolkata’s trams date back to 1873, when they were horse-drawn, along a 3.9-km stretch between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat. Electric trams were introduced in the early 1900s. Though much diminished today, the network continues to trundle on, long after Mumbai discontinued its service in 1964, and Delhi and Chennai even earlier. 

While India has steadily dismantled its tram networks, cities across the world continue to embrace them as a sustainable, efficient solution to urban mobility. 

Several global cities run trams as core daily infrastructure rather than tourist attractions, said Anurag Gupta, partner, Deloitte India. 

Melbourne has the world’s largest operational tram network and it is central to how the city moves, he said, adding that Zurich, Hong Kong, Vienna and Berlin weave trams into an integrated transit mix alongside metro and buses. 

“Amsterdam, Prague and Budapest run dense, high-frequency tram grids that residents rely on daily; and Manchester and Sydney deliberately reintroduced trams/light rail in the past years, specifically to ease road congestion. Bordeaux, Singapore, and Strasbourg are often cited as the gold-standard cases — modern trams used to actively redesign and pedestrianise city centres.” 

Prithish Chowdhary, deputy managing director of Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd, a leading manufacturer of wagons and coaches, echoed the view: “Around the world, there are numerous examples of successful tram networks. They are energy-efficient and provide last-mile connectivity.” 

Reviving trams in Kolkata is a feasible proposition, Chowdhary added. “Given our established capabilities in designing metros and Vande Bharat sleeper trains, designing and manufacturing trams is well within our capabilities. The government would follow public procurement norms, and we will participate when the opportunity arises.” 

Green Kolkata? 

With electric vehicles and green mobility gaining currency, trams make a compelling case for a comeback. 

According to Deloitte’s Gupta, trams are among the most energy-efficient forms of mass transit available. “Modern trams run on electricity, produce near-zero emissions, and carry far more passengers per vehicle than a bus — translating into a significantly smaller carbon footprint per passenger-kilometre.”  

Beyondemissions, he added, trams support future-of-mobility goals in concrete ways: They pull large volumes of commuters off private vehicles, they’re quieter than buses, and their fixed routes make them easy to integrate with other mass transit systems like metros and buses.  

As cities worldwide push toward decarbonising urban transport, trams are increasingly viewed not as legacy infrastructure but as a genuinely future-relevant mode — provided they’re modernised with low-floor, accessible vehicles, he added. 

For Kolkata, then, the question is not simply whether the tram can be brought back, but whether it can be reimagined for the city. The RITES report will offer the first indication of whether its iconic streetcars can reclaim a place in Kolkata’s urban future. 

Tramline

Feb 24, 1873: Kolkata’s first horse-drawn tram service starts

1880: Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC) is formed and registered in London

1882: Steam-powered trams introduced

1900: Electric trams 

1​967: West Bengal govt takes over management of CTC

1976: Ordinance passed to take over CTC assets

1982: Steel-bodied tram cars introduced with World Bank funding

1992: Left Front transport minister Shyamal Chakraborty declares trams “obsolete”

2011: More than 30 tram routes still operational

2024: Operational routes fall to three; TMC transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty says trams will be discontinued, except for a heritage stretch between Maidan and Esplanade

2026: BJP government commits to reviving Kolkata’s trams, appoints RITES to do a feasibility study