Some social historian will no doubt find deep structural - and possibly psychoanalytical - reasons as to why succeeding governments at central, state and municipal levels, have remained regressive and blindered about the actual needs of our citizens.

Even as our big cities and 2nd-3rd tier towns become miasmas of soul-destroying chaos and pollution , administrations of different parties have continued to make the same rudimentary mistakes.

The politicians we elect all seem to share the same impossible nouveau-riche fantasy of turning our metros into Shanghai, Singapore, or London.

Not one politician, whatever their experience of international travel, seems to have arrived at any vision that prioritises the ordinary denizen of a crowded Indian city.

Not one of them seems to be able to break out from the addiction of trying to reproduce how things (used to) work in the biggest urban conglomerations of the 'First World'. So, petrol-driven vehicles are allowed to cover our metropolises like a strangulating plastic and metal fungus.

While flyovers and bypass schemes struggle to play keep-up with the metastasising 4-wheel traffic, cities and towns become increasingly anti-pedestrian.

Operational and forthcoming metro rail systems are seen as a solution in themselves, with some few link-ups with buses.

The buses themselves, still far too few running on electric, are always second-class citizens on roads, stuttering among long strings of cars often carrying just 2-3 people, bus lanes being anathema to private car owners.

Massed air-conditioning of millions of cars adds a huge mass of heat to urban environments already boiling over.

We are still imprisoned by a 19th century/Industrial Revolution idea of economic growth.

We still celebrate increases in the production of private motor vehicles, the economy-pundits going into group-mourning when sales and production dip. Artificial Intelligence(AI) Java Programming with ChatGPT: Learn using Generative AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, Developer and Lead Instructor View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Basics of Generative AI : Unveiling Tomorrow's Innovations By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, Developer and Lead Instructor View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Generative AI for Dynamic Java Web Applications with ChatGPT By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, Developer and Lead Instructor View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Mastering C++ Fundamentals with Generative AI: A Hands-On By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, Developer and Lead Instructor View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Master in Python Language Quickly Using the ChatGPT Open AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, Developer and Lead Instructor View Program Office Productivity Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, Developer and Lead Instructor View Program Astrology Vastu Shastra Course By - Sachenkumar Rai, Vastu Shashtri View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, Developer and Lead Instructor View Program Web Development A Comprehensive ASP.NET Core MVC 6 Project Guide for 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, Developer and Lead Instructor View Program Office Productivity Mastering Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and 365 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, Developer and Lead Instructor View Program Marketing Digital marketing - Wordpress Website Development By - Shraddha Somani, Digital Marketing Trainer, Consultant, Strategiest and Subject Matter expert View Program Web Development Mastering Full Stack Development: From Frontend to Backend Excellence By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, Developer and Lead Instructor View Program Finance Financial Literacy i.e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By - CA Rahul Gupta, CA with 10+ years of domain experience, trainer View Program Leadership Business Storytelling Masterclass By - Ameen Haque, Founder of Storywallahs View Program Marketing Future of Marketing & Branding Masterclass By - Dr. David Aaker, Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, Author | Speaker | Thought Leader | Branding Consultant View Program HR Human Potential and the Future of Employment By - Lynda Gratton, Prof.

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Dates haven't been announced, but its derailing confirmed.

One or two token trams will run, taking tourists on a short journey from Point A to Point B in a wretched attempt to monetise nostalgia.

But as for actual tram services the city has used for over a century, the official assault that began decades ago has finally managed to kill its quarry by a thousand small blows.

Trams will continue to prosper in the backward, know-nothing cities of Melbourne and Adelaide.

In old-fashioned Zurich and Basel.

In quaint and slow Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich and Vienna.

In past-obsessed, provincial Amsterdam, Madrid, and Lisbon.

In futuristically cutting-edge Kolkata, however, the tram network will become a thing of the past, consigned to history with gas lamps and cyclostyle machines . Kolkata, the only city I know that has traffic signs barring bicycles from important roads, will now take another giant step, not so much backward as downward, deeper into the hole of urban dystopia.

Historians and social scientists looking back at this time will wonder: in a city where the vast majority managed their day through a combination of walking, public transport, and cycling, where depredations of global warming were frighteningly obvious, why was it impossible for elected officials to imagine and bring about a simple, no-frills, less-polluting public transport system that used the proven benefits of electric trams, CNG and electric buses working in tandem with the metro? Why was it impossible for the worthies in charge to take the obvious step of radically reducing fossil-fuel traffic, especially private traffic and heavily polluting private freight transport? While many cities the world over were dedicating their re-design to increasing their dedicated bicycle lanes, bus lanes, and tram networks, how did Kolkata manage to wind up its trams and punish cyclists, even while pedestrians daily faced mortal danger running the gauntlet at all the major crossings? Why did no one in charge think, 'Forget about aping other cities.

Let's think out of the box and bring about a city that others will want to emulate.

There's that old adage, 'What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.

' Can it be true again? The writer is author of The Last Jet-Engine Laugh