Kolkata: Sections of tram tracks on Judges Court Road in Alipore were covered with asphalt on Wednesday evening. The tracks have been lying idle for several years now, but trams for several routes used to ply through this stretch earlier.
"I was walking along the Judges Court Road pavement around 11 pm on Wednesday when I saw asphalt being dumped to cover the tram tracks," a local resident told TOI.
Police sources said traffic on the stretch increased due to metro work on Diamond Harbour Road. Hence, the tracks were being covered on stretches that became accident-prone with bikes skidding on them.
The covering of tram tracks comes less than a month after NGO People United for Better Living in Calcutta (PUBLIC) filed a contempt application against WBTC for allegedly violating a Calcutta HC order. The petitioner raised concerns over the bituminisation of tram tracks, despite an HC order that explicitly restrained any such actions.
In response to a PIL filed by PUBLIC in May 2023, the court stopped the attempt by the state to bituminise tram tracks or remove them. PUBLIC argued that there is no study or data to show that tram tracks cause accidents or that trams slow down traffic.
Trams on routes that used to pass through Judges Court Road are 24 (Ballygunge to BBD Bag); 27 (Ballygunge to Behala); 30 (Kalighat to Howrah); 31 (Kalighat to Esplanade); 32 (Tollygunge to Howrah); 24/36 (Ballygunge to Kidderpore); 29/36 (Tollygunge to Kidderpore); 24/37 (Ballygunge to Joka); and 37/30 (Joka to Howrah). Of these, several routes are now defunct and cannot be revived due to the construction of flyovers and metro viaducts.