You can hold instance of Fragments. But each fragment onCreateView() will surely be called each time. You can initialise them lazily as some form of enhancement.

(answering own question). Modified the code to check if the fragment already exists by using TAG. See code below:

override fun onNavigationItemSelected(item: MenuItem): Boolean {
when (item.itemId) {
    R.id.nav_home -> {
        
       var homeFragment = supportFragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("HOME")
        if(homeFragment == null){
            supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction()
                .replace(R.id.content_frame, RideFragment(), "HOME").addToBackStack(null).commit()
        } else {
            supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content_frame,homeFragment, "HOME")
                .addToBackStack(null).commit()
        }
    }
    R.id.nav_profile -> {
        
        var profileFragment = supportFragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("PROFILE")
        if(profileFragment == null){
            supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction()
                .replace(R.id.content_frame, RideFragment(), "PROFILE").addToBackStack(null).commit()
        } else {
            supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content_frame,profileFragment, "PROFILE")
                .addToBackStack(null).commit()
        }
    }
    R.id.nav_history -> {
        
        var historyFragment = supportFragmentManager.findFragmentByTag("HISTORY")
        if(historyFragment == null){
            supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction()
                .replace(R.id.content_frame, RideFragment(), "HISTORY").addToBackStack(null).commit()
        } else {
            supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content_frame,historyFragment, "HISTORY")
                .addToBackStack(null).commit()
        }

    }
        val drawerLayout: DrawerLayout = findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout)
        drawerLayout.closeDrawer(GravityCompat.START)
        return true
}

I am using a NavigationDrawer Activity and implemented the onNavigationItemSelected method as given below.

override fun onNavigationItemSelected(item: MenuItem): Boolean {
    when (item.itemId) {
        R.id.nav_home -> {
             var homeFragment:HomeFragment =HomeFragment ()
             supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content_frame,homeFragment)
                  .addToBackStack(null).commit()
        }
        R.id.nav_profile -> {
             var profileFragment:ProfileFragment =ProfileFragment ()
             supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content_frame,profileFragment)
                  .addToBackStack(null).commit()
        }
        R.id.nav_history -> {
             var historyFragment:HistoryFragment =HistoryFragment ()
             supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction().replace(R.id.content_frame,historyFragment)
                  .addToBackStack(null).commit()            }
        }
    val drawerLayout: DrawerLayout = findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout)
    drawerLayout.closeDrawer(GravityCompat.START)
    return true
    }

Question is: how do I get to the same instance of those fragments when I click the second time on the item? I read about using findFragmentByTag for that. But could not get how to implement it here.

To elaborate my question: I clicked on home, profile, history in that order. Then I clicked on home again. I want to replace the original instance of HomeFragment (not a new instance) in the content-frame.