Himachal Dy CM asks officials to operationalise Shimla ropeway in 5 years, projects likely in Dharamshala, Manali

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], December 19 : Himachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri on Monday chaired a review meeting of Ropeways and Rapid Transport Development Corporation HP Limited (RTDC) and the government plans to develop urban ropeway projects for Dharamshala and Manali apart from Shimla.
He took note of all ongoing projects including issues and problems being faced by the corporation and laid stress on construction of composite ropeways for providing connectivity to certain unconnected habitations.
The Deputy Chief Minister asked RTDC to make efforts for developing at least one ropeway per district in the next five years for providing connectivity, employment generation as well as enhancing tourism potential.
He said that the ropeway was an eco-friendly mode of transport which reduces the travel distance sufficiently as in hilly terrain one km of ropeway was equivalent to 5-6 km of road distance.
"The state government plans to go for this eco-friendly, clean and green mode of transport in a big way, be it for decongestion of cities, providing connectivity to left out unconnected habitations or enhancing tourism potential", he said adding that RTDC has started the groundwork for this project in Shimla.
According to an official release, he directed RTDC to operationalise the project in the next five years.
"This ropeway project will have a network of 14.69 km ropeways connecting 15 stations with a project cost of Rs 1,546.40 crore. This urban ropeway project will be the second of its kind in the world and first in India", the Deputy CM said.
He said that the government plans to develop similar urban ropeway projects for Dharamshala and Manali towns.
Mukesh Agnihotri gave directions to RTDC for bringing the NABARD guidelines for the development of ropeways in the state under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund in a Cabinet meeting immediately for its approval, so that the construction of composite ropeways for providing connectivity to 329 unconnected habitations (250 plus population) as well as carriage of Agriculture and Horticulture produce could be taken up under NABARD RIDF in a big way.
He also directed the officers to explore possibilities of developing ropeways for Mata Chintpurni and Baba Balak Nath ji temples.
Principal Secretary Transport, R.D. Nazeem, Director RTDC Ajay Sharma, Chief General Manager RTDC Rohit Thakur and other senior functionaries of the corporation were present in the meeting.