Calcutta, in the year 1926, witnessed the first Double-decker bus in the Indian soil, introduced by the British colonisers. The first bus plied from Shyambazar to Kalighat and vice-versa. Slightly different from the conventional buses, double-decker buses have two storeys or decker for the commuters to travel by. The old ones had a separate station for the driver, and the passengers accessed the bus by an open platform situated at the rear. A four-speed transmission was used to set the bus on road. Usually, the passengers in the upper storey were not allowed to stand and travel since the shift in the centre of gravity might lead the bus to overturn and fall down.

Certainly, for crowded cities like Kolkata, having very frequent commuters, double-decker bus which has the capacity to carry more passengers is indeed an important transportation facility. However, with every boon, comes a side effect. Such transport creates excessive pollution and tends to have a high intake of fuel. Thus, it doesn’t enlist in our daily transportation today, in the city. Kolkata saw the last double-decker bus to set off in the road in the year 2005.

Even with all its drawbacks, double-decker buses would remain a nostalgia for the city, thereby revisiting it’s transport legacy, time and again.