Day after technical snag: Operations of Gulmarg Gondola restored after brief halt
Officials said that the “technical glitch”, which they didn’t specify, disrupted the operations of the cable car on Sunday evening
The operations of Gulmarg Gondola, one of Asia’s highest aerial tramways in North Kashmir, near LoC, were started after a proper safety check on Monday, a day after a ‘technical snag’ stopped the cable car leaving many tourists stranded mid-air for a couple of hours.
Officials said that the “technical glitch”, which they didn’t specify, disrupted the operations of the cable car on Sunday evening. Local reports said that a rope had slipped from a pulley.
“There was a technical glitch on Sunday (in the first phase of Gondola) at around 5.30 pm. It has been resolved. It was restored on Sunday evening but today we conducted its safety check again,” said J&K cable car corporation managing director Syed Qamar Sajad.
He said that the stranded tourists were brought down on Sunday evening. “Around 7.10 pm (on Sunday), the tourists were brought down. Our second phase up-to Apharwat was normal and running,” he said.
Sajad said that the project stops automatically when it detects any fault to ensure the safety of people. “As we were ensuring its restoration, the tourists in the cabins mid-air were assured of their safety through the public address system,” he said.
The Gulmarg Gondola is the flagship attraction of Kashmir tourism and possibly India’s most popular ropeway at a height of 13,500 ft – Asia’s highest operating cable car.
The Gondola has two phases - first phase takes a person from Gulmarg bowl to Kongdori bowl at a height of 2,650 m (8,694 ft) while the second phase soars to sky touching Apharwat at a height of 3,980 m (13,058 ft). The ropeway has in total 108 cabins and 18 towers.
“To secure it doubly, a technical check of the Gondola was conducted on Monday for an hour and a half. Even the vacant cabins were also run to ensure the safety of the tourists. We don’t run the project till we are satisfied with its security. So today we started the Gondola after proper satisfaction of its safety,” he said.
The cable car attracts a lot of tourists to Gulmarg - the meadow of flowers - which is located close to LoC in the Pir Panjal mountain range in the western Himalayas, some 50km from Srinagar, and is defined as a cup-shaped valley with virgin peaks, dry curry powder snow and vast meadows.
In June, 2017, the Gulmarg Gondola had met with an accident killing seven people, including four tourists from Delhi. A tree had fallen (due to lightning) on the ropeway, causing it to recoil so violently that passengers in two cars were left with fatal injuries. The officials had called it “an act of God and not any fault of the cable car project”.
Last financial year, Gulmarg Gondola, gave rides to over one million tourists – a first since its inception in 1998. Conceived in 1988, the Phase-I of the project running from Gulmarg to Kongdori was thrown open to the public in May 1998.
“This year we expect a substantial increase in the one million number as well. Those who visit Gulmarg make sure to ride Gondola,” Sajad said.
The project became a major tourist attraction despite militancy in the state. After the violence started declining fast around the year 2005, the second phase of the Gondola project, running from Kongdori to Apharwat Mountain at a height of 13,500 feet, was thrown open for public making it the one of the highest and largest ropeways in Asia having a total aerial distance of 5 kms.
