BJP MLA Kishore Upadhayay and over 40 devotees remained suspended in the air for nearly an hour on Sunday when a ropeway connecting Surkanda Devi temple near Mussoorie got stuck midway due to a technical snag. The incident occurred when they were returning from the temple by the ropeway.
The devotees had a sigh of relief as they got down from the ropeway trolley after nearly an hour of being suspended in the air, the BJP MLA said.
He said that the ropeway operation to Surkanda Devi temple has been resumed, the MLA suggested that it should be properly examined so that the lives of devotees are not risked.
Ropeway’s service to the temple situated in the Tehri district began in May this year. It is the first ropeway project started by the state tourism department after the creation of Uttarakhand. The 502-metre long ropeway was built at a cost of ₹5 crore and operates between Kaddukhal and Sukanda Devi temple.
Notably, in a more serious incident last month in Himachal Pradesh, 11 people, including five women, were stranded for hours after a cable car was stuck mid-air at Parwanoo Timber Trail in Solan district. All of them were rescued after a six-hour-long operation.
Nearly two months ago, 15 tourists have also trapped mid-air on a ropeway at Trikut hills in Jharkhand’s Deoghar district for around 40 hours. Twelve of them were rescued by Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters, while three people died in the incident that took place on April 11.
Separately, a company called Empyrean Skyview Projects said it will be building two more ropeway systems in Mussoorie and Yamunotri with an investment of ₹700 crore.
The Dehradun-Mussoorie project will be India’s longest passenger aerial mono-cable ropeway, covering a 5.5 km distance. The ropeway project will include two terminals, each, at Dehradun and Mussoorie, and will cost ₹300 crore in phase I and ₹150 crore in phase II.
Whereas, the Yamunotri ropeway will cost ₹200 crore in phase I and ₹50 crore in phase II. This is being planned at an altitude of over 10,000 feet and is part of the Char Dham Yatra, which also includes Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Badrinath shrines. The 3.8-km ropeway will connect Kharsali and Yamunotri in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand will be at 10,797 feet.
It will be built on the public-private partnership (PPP) model, and will help pilgrims cover the 90-120 minute trekking distance in a shorter time.
Ropeway projects are typically PPPs where royalty is paid to the government as a variable percentage or at a fixed value. This is determined at the tender processing stage, and the bidder with the highest revenue share is awarded the tender. The projects are awarded on a build-own-operate-transfer model for a 35-50 year period. All investments are borne by the winning bidder including the operational costs.
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