CM writes to Centre on ropeway project

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 16

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has reportedly written a letter to the Union Ministry of Forest and Climate Change seeking exemption from forest and environment clearances for the ambitious 31-km electric ropeway smart urban transport project. It is a “green and eco-friendly” project that will further reduce carbon footprint in the hills”.

Thakur wrote the letter after Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Global Investors’ Meet in Dharamsala on November 6 and 7 took note of the ropeways project and spent more time at the stall of the Ropeways Rapid Transport and Development Corporation (RRTDC), said the Managing Director of the RRTDC.

Webcos, consultant of the Central Government, had carried out a pre-feasibility survey and found the 31-km ropeways project as the only solution to decongest Shimla city for the next 50 years, he said.

The Central Government has given the go-ahead to the first phase of the project, he added.

As per the proposal, there would be 32 stations with smart parking lots. The aerial ropeway would carry 10,000 passengers both ways at a time and each station would be linked in a five-minute aerial journey in contrast with an hour or half an hour it otherwise takes at present for public to reach Sanjauli from the ISBT during peak hours, explained the ropeways engineers. The project is estimated to cost Rs 1,120 crore.