Mumbai:
"
Kahin Building, Kahin Traame, Kahin Motor, Kahin Mill...," Mumbaikars are singing this popular tune from the 1956 hit CID once again.
The last tram ran in Mumbai on 31st March,1964. 52 years later, the tracks they ran on have resurfaced at Flora Fountain in Mumbai.
Curious onlookers are seen clicking selfies as the civic body decides on how to move the tracks that are still in a good condition.
Senior road department officials say the workers first discovered parts of the tram tracks on February 19 while they were digging up the road to resurface the entire area. When they dug further to their surprise they found that it was part of an old tram system that ran from Colaba to Dadar. The tram tracks were found one foot below the surface and are close to 20-metres long.
Septuagenarian Bhagwandas Paneria still remembers going to school in tram. "I use to pay two paisa for a half ticket and one anna for a full ticket from Matunga to Colaba," he recalls with a nostalgic smile.
The first horse-drawn tram ran between Parel and Colaba in the 1870s. In the early 1900s the service was electrified and the double decker tram was introduced in 1920. However with the growing popularity of the bus and train services in a rapidly growing city, the tram service closed leaving its imprint on Mumbai's culture, a culture that Mr Paneria remembers fondly.
With the discovery of the old tracks rekindling memories of the old trundling mode of transport, hopes have been reignited about their possible return in a modern avatar. In July last year Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar announced that trams may be part of the multi-modal coastal corridor planned between Nariman Point and Kandivali.
"I feel trams are good for a crowded city like Mumbai, especially the island city," Traffic analyst Ashok Datar told NDTV. "It may reduce illegal parking (on the tram tracks)... Also it means less space compared to a Bus Rapid Transport lane," he had added welcoming the move.
Until that happens, this blast from the past, Mumbai's latest lost heritage will head to the city museum.