Kolkata Is the Only Indian City Still Running Trams, 153 Years After a Horse-Drawn Car First Ran From Sealdah to Armenian Ghat

Kolkata’s tram, which first ran as a horse-drawn car on 24 February 1873, is the only tramway still working in an Indian city. In July 2026 it ran on two routes, linking Gariahat in the south with Shyambazar in the north through Esplanade, and on 28 September 2026 the West Bengal transport department awarded RITES, a public sector transport consultancy, a feasibility study on reviving and expanding it.

A 3.9 km horse line that closed within the year

The company’s own timeline starts on 24 February 1873, when the first tram in Kolkata ran from Sealdah to Armenian Ghat over 3.9 km, drawn by horses. Banglapedia adds that the route went by way of Bowbazar and Dalhousie Square. The first line did not last the year. The timeline records it as discontinued on 20 November 1873, and the FIBIS wiki, which draws on records of British India, says it closed for lack of passengers.

Railzi, a history site on Indian trams, dates the horse trams of Bombay and Madras to 1874, a year after Kolkata’s first run.

1880: a London company and a second start

The restart is where the sources disagree on dates. Banglapedia says the Calcutta Corporation signed an agreement on 2 October 1879 with three English industrialists, that the Calcutta Tramways Act of 1880 sanctioned it, and that operations were permitted from 1 November 1880. Because the tracks were not ready, its account has early trips running only as far as Dalhousie Square. Graces Guide also gives 1 November 1880 and says the Viceroy, Lord Ripon, inaugurated the metre-gauge horse tramway from Sealdah to Armenian Ghat. The company’s timeline says service restarted in November 1880. The FIBIS wiki puts the opening of the horse-tram service in January 1881.

The company itself was registered in London, on 20 December 1880 by the company’s timeline and on 22 December 1880 by Graces Guide. Banglapedia lists eight lines open by 1884: Sealdah, Chitpore and Chowringhee in 1881, Dharmatallah, Strand Road, Shambazar and Kidderpore in 1882, and Wellesley in 1884.

Steam tried, then wires

Steam engines were introduced in 1882, according to the company, and Banglapedia says they ran only briefly on the Kidderpore and Chowringhee sections, between 1882 and 1883, while horses pulled the cars elsewhere. By the end of the nineteenth century, Graces Guide and the FIBIS wiki both give the company 166 tram cars, about 1,000 horses, seven steam locomotives and 19 miles (30 km) of track.

Electrification then replaced the horses. The company timeline dates electric trams in Kolkata to 1900, powered from its own station at Nonapukur, and says Howrah followed in 1905. Banglapedia says the proposal was accepted in 1899 and electrification was complete by 1902, with the first electric car in the Kidderpore section. Railzi gives the date of the first electric run as 27 March 1902, from Esplanade to Kidderpore. The company stopped generating its own power in 1927 and has bought it from the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation since, according to its timeline.

Kolkata was not the first Indian city to run electric trams. The FIBIS wiki dates public electric service in Madras to 7 May 1895, with seven cars. The Business Standard of 9 October 2026 calls Kolkata’s “Asia’s oldest electric tram system”, and an AFP report of September 2024 is headlined “Asia’s oldest operating trams”.

The widest network, and the state takeover

On 10 February 1943 the lines were linked across the Howrah Bridge, which took the combined track in Kolkata and Howrah to 68 km, the company says. Outlook Traveller gives a different date, 3 February 1943, for a single tram crossing the bridge at night before any formal opening. The timeline shows a fleet of 450 cars in 1960 and 70.74 km of track in 1969, before the Howrah section closed in 1970 and 1971.

The state government took over management of the company on 19 July 1967, according to Graces Guide and Railzi, and the Business Standard reports that it formally acquired the undertaking in 1976. West Bengal Act 54 of 1976 sets 8 November 1976 as the appointed day on which the Calcutta Tramways Company Limited’s undertaking vested in the state government, “for the purpose of ensuring better transport facilities to the members of the public”. The Act’s text was published in the Calcutta Gazette on 6 January 1977.

The last large addition of cars came with the World Bank-funded Calcutta Urban Transport Project. The company’s description counts 189 steel-bodied cars from the project’s years, 1982 to 1985, and calls them the youngest in the fleet. The same description says each car has two compartments, seats 54 and can carry about 120 in the rush hour, running on 550 volts DC drawn from overhead wires.

Fewer routes, and a court case

Mainspring lists congestion and Metro construction, which it says began in 1978, among the causes of the decline. The Metro’s first 3.4 km stretch opened in 1984, as our piece on India’s metro networks sets out. The company’s timeline records the route length at 57.17 km after the Behala to Joka line closed on 25 May 2011. The Business Standard, citing tram advocates, counts 37 routes in 2011, 15 by 2017 and two by 2022. The company’s own undated page lists 25 routes with five suspended, and a fleet of 270 cars, figures that predate those closures.

Citizens went to the Calcutta High Court. People United for Better Living in Calcutta (PUBLIC), a trust, filed a public interest petition against the covering of tram tracks with bitumen. The Business Standard quotes its founder as saying a stay was secured in May 2023. The Week reports that in June 2023 the court directed the state to form a committee to explore preserving trams, with members including transport officials, the Calcutta Tram Users Association and a state heritage commission member. At a hearing reported on 15 January 2025, a division bench led by the Chief Justice directed the state to restore tracks that had been bituminised, and The Leaflet reports that the stay on bituminisation continued.

The state’s position at the time was set out by its transport minister. In August 2024, as reported by Deccan Herald from the Indian Express, he said that “It’s not practical to run trams on city roads in today’s time.” In September 2024, Homegrown reports, the government announced it would discontinue services except for a short heritage stretch between Maidan and Esplanade. Mainspring reports that the High Court formed an advisory committee to review the decision.

What runs in 2026

The Week’s report of 1 July 2026 says two routes run with 23 drivers and 24 conductors, operating 8 to 10 trams between 6 am and 9 pm, with no proper schedule and trams often leaving late. On 16 July 2026 a decorated tram carried passengers from Gariahat to Shyambazar through Esplanade for Rath Yatra, an event run by the Calcutta Tram Users Association and the Tramjatra campaign. Festival traffic also stops trams: Mainspring reports that police suspended services from 9 to 15 October 2024, during Durga Puja, because of congestion, and that they returned to the streets on 22 October.

The Tollygunge to Ballygunge service, routes 24 and 29, was suspended for utility work, Mainspring reported in October 2024. The Business Standard quotes the association’s general secretary as saying that route could be revived with very little work.

The revival plan

On 1 July 2026 the state’s transport minister said the government had decided that 70 routes would be operational and that the new system would be battery-operated, with no overhead wires. The Week adds that the trams are to be air-conditioned, that a heritage route is planned between the Dakshineswar and Kalighat temples, and that a New Town route is proposed.

The study is the first documented step. The Business Standard reports that the transport department issued RITES a letter of award on 28 September 2026 for a feasibility study on revival, modernisation and expansion, and that its principal secretary expects the study and the detailed project report in two to two and a half months. RITES told the paper that surveys and stakeholder consultations were still under way. The paper adds that the state’s special leave petition in the Supreme Court, filed in February 2026, is understood to be in the process of being withdrawn, and that the June budget made no provision for trams, according to PUBLIC’s founder.

Riding it

The company’s description lists the termini at Esplanade, Shyambazar, Ballygunge and five other points, and puts fares at Rs 5 to Rs 6, with a weekend “Heritage Ride” at Rs 10 on two special cars. That page is undated and its timeline ends in 2014, so ask the conductor for the current fare. An AFP report in September 2024 put the speed at best around 20 km an hour.

The Smaranika tram museum, set up inside a vintage two-bogey car in the Esplanade depot in 2014, held a gallery and a cafe, and Outlook Traveller reported in 2023 that it opened from 1 pm to 8 pm every day except Thursday. The same article gives its address as 6 Esplanade East.