Work on Rs 1,555-crore ropeway in Shimla to begin next year

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, November 6

The work on the Rs 1,555 crore Innovative Urban Ropeway Transport Project to decongest the state capital is likely to begin next year. Its detailed project report (DPR) has been submitted to New Development Bank (NDB). It will be the second biggest aerial transport system in the world.

The 13.65-km ropeway with 13 boarding and de-boarding stations and one turning station is aimed at decongesting Shimla, which is plagued by traffic congestion during peak office hours and at weekend when a huge number of tourists visit the city. Incidentally, this ropeway will be one of a kind in the country and the second largest urban ropeway network in the world after La Paz in Bolivia. Each of the 13 stations will have a distance of 1 km to 1.5 km.

The project to be funded by the NDB will help in decongesting Shimla for the next 40 years and provide an eco-friendly and affordable overhead safe mode of public transportation. The work on the project is likely to begin by mid-2024 as all formalities have been completed and it is estimated to be completed in five years.

The project will be developed on the world’s highest safety standards and will have a carrying capacity of 3,000 persons per hour per direction (PPHD). It will adopt the latest mono cable detachable Gondola (MDG) technology. The cabins in the ropeway will have a sitting capacity of 10 persons.

Around 9.82 hectares are required for the project and the application for the change of use for 7.26 hectares of forestland has been submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest. “The ropeway will cover 76 km of road network. Since the average volume to capacity ratio of vehicles on roads in Shimla is about 1.4, there is bound to be traffic congestion and inconvenience to commuters, both locals as well as tourists,” says Ajay Sharma, Director of Ropeway and Rapid Transport System Development Corporation (RTDC). “Ideally, the average volume to capacity ratio of vehicles for smooth flow of traffic should be less than one,” he adds.

Sharma says, “The DPR along with the feasibility report, topographical survey, environment and social impact assessment, traffic survey, ridership estimation and design of the ropeway has been submitted to the NDB.” He adds that the project is in line with Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s vision of providing green and clean transportation.

Second largest

• This ropeway will be one of a kind in the country and the second largest urban ropeway network in the world after La Paz in Bolivia
• Each of the 13 stations of the ropeway will have a distance of 1 km to 1.5 km
• The RTDC had conceived the project in March 2022 and the Department of Economic Affairs granted in-principal approval to it in August 2022