No time frame set for panel to submit ropeway mishap report

Sumit Hakhoo
Tribune News Service
Jammu, January 23

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The death of two labourers during a mock drill of the Jammu ropeway has cast a shadow over the future of the ambitious project as no time frame has been set for the magisterial inquiry to submit its report.

Officials remain tight-lipped on the commissioning and operation of the ropeway project.

Sources told The Tribune that the administration wanted the technical evaluation of the project, which had been the victim of red-tapism during the construction process, had missed several deadlines and was caught up in a political controversy over its name.

Two workers were killed and four others were injured in the ropeway accident on January 20.

The incident exposed serious lapses in the standard operating procedures during the mock drill despite pre-commissioning trials and full-load trials during the former PDP-BJP government in 2018, when Priya Sethi was the Minister of State for Tourism. The 1.66-km-long cable car project from Peer Kho to Mahamaya Temple has seven towers, which have been laid on the Tawi riverbed. The other section of the ropeway is from Bahu Fort to Mahamaya Park.

As per the mandate of the magisterial inquiry, officials will inquire into the ‘neglect as having caused or contributed to the accident or of any defect in connection with the installation of the cable car or other causes and circumstances which led to the accident’.

Additional District Magistrate Pankaj Raj Katoch, who is heading the inquiry committee, said they had visited the spot and sought details.

“It will take some time because technical issues are involved. I cannot share more details before the report is submitted,” Katoch said. He, however, refused to say when the report would be submitted.

The state Cabinet under then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had given the go-ahead to the project in 1996 to boost the tourism sector in the winter capital, a transit point for Vaishno Devi pilgrims. Due to the non-serious approach of the successive governments, the project could not get the necessary clearances from various departments.

Its foundation stone was laid in 2014 when Omar Abdullah was the Chief Minister. The construction of the project started in 2015 under the PDP-BJP government.