From the horse driven tram carriages to the modern day trams, Calcutta Tramways company has come a long way. Calcutta Tramways is a Government Company under the Companies Act, 1956 where the entire Share Capital of the Company lies vested with the Governor of the State of West Bengal. The erst while Company i.e. The Calcutta Tramways Company Limited was incorporated in England and was engaged in the business of plying tramways in and around Calcutta. After passing through a lot of highs & hiccups, The Government of West Bengal passed the Calcutta Tramways Company (taking over the Management ) Act, and took over the management on 19th July, 1967.

The series of changes continued and on 8th November, 1986 The Calcutta Tramways (acquisation of undertaking) ordinance, 1976 was promulgated under which the Company with all its assets was vested with the Government of West Bengal. Finally talks on trams assumed significant importance & this was converted in to a Government Company in February, 1983 in the style and name of "The Calcutta Tramways Company (1978) Limited" in terms of The Calcutta Tramways Company (Acquisition of Undertaking ) Amendment Act, 1978. At present the Company is under the administrative control of Transport Department ,Government of west Bengal.

The day to day function of the Company is managed by the Board of Directors. All the Directors are appointed by the Governor of the State. At present there are six Directors, one of them has been appointed as a Chairman-cum-Managing Director who is a full-time employee of the Company for the conduct and management of the business of the Company subject to the control and supervision of the Board of Directors.

In the early eighties Calcutta Tramways used to carry 0.75 million passengers per day with 275 cars on road . It now carries roughly 0.16 million passengers per day with 170 cars running or 58 million passengers per annum. This is sharp and progressive decline over a period of twenty years due to lack of investments and modernisation, slow speed, loss of reserve right of way, and unreliable service. It now operates in mixed traffic with all variety of vehicles competing for the same road space.

TRACKS- There are 68 kms double track of standard gauge in operation of which only 25 kms are in reserved right-of-way. Tram tracks have become major source of problem due to inadequate maintenance, non-investment of capital and mixed traffic operation. The track profile is very irregular with gaps and elevation changes at many of the 3000 crossings. Much of the track is in need of total replacement which need major investment.

VEHICLES- CTC has a fleet of 319 trams, 239 of which are operational. Presently an average of 170 trams run on road. All are standard gauge, single articulated cars with two passengers compartments and an operator cab. They are 2.1 metre wide and 17.5 metres long, weighing 20/22 tons empty. Each compartment has wide passenger entrance with seat capacity of 62 and full-load capacity 200 passengers. .

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM- The power of 550 V.D.C. is supplied to the vehicles by 138 KMs of overhead catenary system. There are 12 substations with 1 to 2 MW rectifiers fed from 6 KV , 50 HZ. There are 196 KMs of positive underground cables.

TRAFFIC- CTC runs its tram services from 7 Depots and 11 terminii located in North, Central and South Calcutta in 29 routes based on a schedule of 170/180 trams in 2-shift starting from 4.15 a.m. in the morning to 11.40 p.m. in the evening. Fares are lowest amongst all modes ranging from Rs.1.50 to Rs.2.00. Each car having a capacity of 2500 carries 900 passengers daily showing an utilisation of less than 50% capacity. Kolkata has grown into a major metropolis of 12 million with a hinterland of 250 million people but with a road space of only 6% of the build-up area. This extremely low road space has created endemic transportation problems, traffic bottleneck and slow speed solution to which seems far-off. Added to this are ever-increasing no. of buses, mini-buses, cars, hand-pulled rickshaws, pedestrians and situation is nightmarish with the present chaotic traffic conditions. Need for a reliable, high capacity, non-pollutant, speedy, convenient, safe and cost –effective public transport is felt all the more where rail-based transport in reserved right-of-way seems to enjoy distinct and overwhelming advantage.

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