WAY OT: Fw: [Tramnews] Trams to be taken off Calcutta roads in phases

Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 05:38:55 -0300
From: "Marcelo Benoit" <mmbenoit@a...>
Subject: Trams to be taken off Calcutta roads in phases

I know this is way off topic, gang, but I thought you'd be interested in
this forwarded message from the [Tramnews] web site. A picture of a
Calcutta tram appeared in the June 1996 issue of the now-defunct Passenger
Train Journal (along with three PCC articles, one of them written by me).
The URL is below.

The incredibly decrepit 6-axle Calcutta trams have their window spaces
covered with wire mesh, including where the windscreen would be. LOL

Milantram

http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/sep/20tram.htm

Trams, the eco-friendly, slow moving mass transport system might be
reaching the end of the road in Calcutta, the only city in the country
where these two-carriage cars run.

"Though a symbol of the metropolis's heritage, the trams will have to
be removed in a phased manner to decongest roads," West Bengal
Transport Minister Subhash Chakraborty said, unveiling an ambitious Rs
164.79 billion master plan for traffic and transportation in Calcutta
metropolitan area.

"We will keep a patch or two to operate heritage trams, but the rest
will be taken off the roads to provide the city additional 76-km of
arterial road space," he told a seminar attended by five of his
cabinet colleagues.

Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta pointed out that the move would not
lead to unemployment as the tram workers would be absorbed in buses
run by the Calcutta Tramways Company.

"If we remove tramlines from the huge stretches of APC Road, AJC Road
and Rashbehari avenue, there would be ample space to construct a
six-lane roadway," he said.

Pointing out that the Left Front government was once the biggest
proponent of this eco-friendly mass transport system, he said recent
cost-benefit analyses, however, had forced the government to think
otherwise.

PTI

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