About CTC
The Calcutta Tramways Company operates Tram services in 25
different routes across the streets of Kolkata (Five routes are temporarily suspended for underground sewerage relining work by KMC and concretization of tram tracks by HRBC). The Tramways network is spread with a radius of about 10 km from the centre of the city.
Tram tracks are spread over a length of about 57.17 km Double Track out of which about 3.2 km are reserved only for Tram movement. The rest portions are unreserved i.e, used by other vehicles alongwith Tram and it is mostly concretized except 5.43 km. The tram tracks are mostly laid at grade with the surface of road.
Presently there are 270 Tram cars including 4 special cars. 189 out of these are Steel Body Cars procured during the Calcutta Urban Transport Project in 1982-1985, which are the youngest of the family. There are 56 Wooden Body ( Articulated ) Tram cars procured during 1940-1950. Another 21 SLC(Stream Lined Cars, both steel and wooden body) were also procured between 1940-1950.
Tram cars move using 550 V DC which is converted from 6KV AC supply, converted and distributed from 10 Sub Stations located at Shyambazar, Rajabazar, M.G.Road, Dalhousie, Esplanade, Hastings, Mominpur, Kalighat, Gariahat and Nonapukur.
The distributed supply is carried through an Over Head Network above the Tram tracks with proper support by Traction Poles and Brackets.
Later, an experimental venture was made by renovating one Tram car with innovative outlook in our Nonapukur Workshop which is running satisfactorily in our daily fleet. Following this experiment, 24 more tram cars have been renovated in similar fashion in the workshop. This has been a matter of pride for CTC. In addition to that four single bogie tram cars, including two with air-conditioned facility, named “Charaibeti” and “Danadhanya” have also been manufactured by our workshop indigenously.
CTC has a full fledged Central Workshop carrying out major renovations and manufacturing different accessories required for Tram Car maintenance. Besides, there are 7 depots located at different places for carrying out scheduled maintenance and minor repairing. The depots are located at Belgatchia, Rajabazar, Park Circus, Gariahat, Kalighat, Tollygunje & Khidirpur. Apart from this there are 8 termini located at BidhanNagar, Galiff Street, Shyambazar, Bagbazar, Esplanade, B.B.D.Bag, Ballygunje and Strand Road Flyover for smooth and effective Traffic operations.
Each Tram car has 2 compartments with a total passenger seating capacity of 54 but it can comfortably transport 120 passengers during rush hours. Passenger fares vary from 5.00 to 6.00. However there are 2 special tram cars “Banalata” and “Balaka” with 45 and 23 seat capacities respectively moving only on special days ( Saturday, Sunday & Holidays) at a fare of 10.00 as a ‘Heritage Ride’. CTC renders service to approximately 70 thousand commuters everyday with an average revenue collection of 2.5 to 3.0 lakhs per day.
The air conditioned tram car is presently put on joy ride at fixed time on Wednesday, Saturday, Sundays & Holidays. Pre-booking facility is also available which can be availed up to 6 days in advance from CTC Esplanade counter or online following the link in this website
BUS Services :
The Calcutta Tramways Company is also a pioneer in Public Bus transport which was initially started in 1920 but later discontinued in 1925. These buses were called omnibus. Bus services were again introduced in 1992 and has a strong presence at present. CTC is the primary government operator in the districts of Howrah, Hoogly, Nadia and North 24 Parganas connecting these districts between themselves and Kolkata including long distance destinations.
CTC has 385 buses operating in 41 routes which are maintained in 10 different depots located at Tollygunge, Khidirpur, Ghasbagan, Park Circus, Rajabazar, Belgachia, Barasat, Habra and Titagarh. There are 436 normal standard non- AC buses out of which 120 buses were inducted in 2009-10 under JnNURM scheme. In addition to that we have 5 Air-conditioned buses out of which one was specially fabricated for use by football legend Maradona during his visit to the city in 2008.