Travel within any Indian city is usually crowded and slow. But Kol-kata (formerly Calcutta), capital of West Bengal, has certain advantages. Its underground rail network, which was the first to open in India in 1984, is being extended. Uniquely in the country, electric trams clatter along its streets. Public transport may look dilapidated but it functions reasonably well: urban ferries, suburban trains, smoky buses and mo-torised rickshaws shunt around the city's 14m residents. Driving, however, often means sitting for hours in traffic jams. Part of the problem is that only 6% of the densely populated city is devoted to roads, and many are in poor shape. Adding to the snarl-ups, drivers have to navigate among pedestrians, human-propelled vegetable carts, cyclists, cows and roughly 8,000 hand-pulled rickshaws.
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