From Alipore to Wellington, illegal parking on unused tram tracks

Kolkata: Despite tram services being severely restricted, Kolkata traffic police continues to face an uphill task in keeping the traffic flowing on roads as tram tracks in several sections of the city have been converted into unauthorised parking. The encroachment on the carriageway has shrunk road space, hindering traffic movement.
TOI spoke to several traffic sergeants who conceded that discontinuation of trams has only led to the mushrooming of unauthorised parking on tram tracks, posing blockades to mobility.In central Kolkata, half of Lenin Sarani from Wellington Square to Moulali, tram services have been discontinued. Unauthorised parking has taken over the tram tracks. “We are having a cat-and-mouse game with the motorists who just park their cars on the tram tracks, causing a lot of problems to vehicle movement,” said a traffic sergeant. The situation is the same on Judges Court Road in south Kolkata.
“Wherever trams have been discontinued, immobility in the form of parking, hawking, or even bike-repairing services have occupied the stretch. So the claim that abolition of tram would give motorists greater road space is a complete sham,” said Debasish Bhattacharya, president, Calcutta Tram Users Association (CTUA).
Martin Schneider, an infrastructure development expert with German Railway, who studied the city’s tram network as his postgraduate research nearly 20 years ago, was in the city on Monday. He told TOI that road space created by the abolition of tram would hardly make any difference as thousands of cars will there to choke the streets.
“Abolition of the tram would be the biggest ever blow to the city’s public transport, spelling doom to the mobility of 90% of the population of the city, surrendering the road space to city’s ever-burgeoning car and two-wheeler population, causing more snarls and pollution with city authority focusing more on dispersing cars rather than dispersal of people,” he said. In Europe, where most of the tram tracks are merged with the rest of the carriageway, any parking or attempt to block the tramway incurs a penalty of 360 euros.
Schneider said Kolkata needs public transport of bigger sizes, for dispersal of people without burning pockets of commuters. He also said a little investment and a few tweakings in the system can revive the tram as a robust public transport of the city. He blamed infrastructure problems, inconsistent schedules, lack of integration with other transport systems, and poor planning for the condition of the tramways responsible for the current failure of the system.