Government Looking At Ropeways To Connect Popular Pilgrimage And Tourist Sites In Hill States, Feasibility Study Commissioned

The government has planned 42.5-km ropeway connectivity across four cities in Shimla, Kangra, Mandi and Chamba and another 29 km in Kedarnath, Govindghat and Nainital.

The proposed ropeways will make Hindu shrine Kedarnath temple and holy Sikh shrine of Hemkund Sahib in Uttarakhand more accessible in the near future.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has invited bids for preparing the feasibility and detailed project reports for eight ropeway links in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh connecting the most sought after pilgrimage and tourist sites.

The authority has been tasked with developing ropeways in these two hill states. The identified ropeway links include connectivity to Tara Devi temple, Hattu Peak, Chunja glacier and Bharmani temple in Himachal Pradesh with a combined length of 42.5 km in the state.

Three links have been proposed in Uttarakhand with a combined length of 29 km, including a ropeway link to Hanuman temple in Nainital and Ghangaria in Chamoli, which is the gateway to the Valley of Flowers, a major tourist attraction.

According to the bid document, the consultant will identify critical success factors for these projects, suggest the best suitable standards considering the project function and location and estimate the current and future demand potential.

The consultant will also have to determine the passenger transport demand for the ropeway and the seasonality of passenger traffic across the months.

It will also suggest the fare for passengers. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had recently urged the Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir governments to explore the possibility of more ropeway links to boost tourism and economic activities.

The government has assigned the task of ropeway, cable car, funicular railway and public transport on electricity to the Road Transport Ministry.