MoRTH prioritizes half a dozen places out of 18 identified by J&K
Eco-friendly projects to be taken up under PPP mode
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 19: The cave shrine of Shiv Khori in Reasi district and Shankaracharya Temple on the Zabarwan Range in Srinagar are among the six tourist and religious destinations in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which are likely to get ropeway connectivity as Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has given sufficient indications in this regard to the Tourism Department. These eco-friendly projects will be taken up on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode under “Parvatmala Scheme’ of the Government of India.
The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting Union Budget for 2022-23, had announced the National Ropeways Development Programme—“Parvatmala” for Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and North-East.
Stating that the idea was to improve connectivity and convenience for commuters besides promoting tourism, the Union Minister had stated that developing an efficient transport network is a big challenge in the hilly areas. The rail and air transport networks are limited in these areas, while the development of road network has technical challenges. In this backdrop, ropeways have emerged as a convenient and safe alternate transport mode.
Moreover, the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules 1961 were amended enabling the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to also look after the development of ropeways and alternate mobility solutions.
Following announcement of ‘Parvatmala Scheme’, the Tourism Department of Jammu and Kashmir Government identified 18 destinations for development of ropeways and accordingly the list was submitted to MoRTH for its consideration and approval, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding out of 18 destinations, the MoRTH has given sufficient indications about having prioritized six sites in Jammu and Kashmir.
Among these six destinations are Shiv Khori cave shrine in Reasi district, seven lakes in Rajouri-Poonch and Ramban to Sanasar in Jammu region and Shankaracharya Temple on the Zabarwan Range in Srinagar and one location in Sonamarg in Kashmir valley, sources informed, adding as per the provisions of the scheme, these ropeway projects will be taken up on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
The installation of ropeway between Shiv Khori Shrine and its base camp Ransoo is the long pending demand of the people and once installed the same will be of immense help for the lakhs of pilgrims visiting the shrine every year. Similarly, ropeway between Ramban and Sanasar will give fillip to the tourism activities in Sanasar as presently very less number of tourists visits this place because of poor condition of road from Patnitop side.
As far as world-famous Shankaracharya Temple in Srinagar is concerned, a plan to install ropeway was mooted several years back but the same was shelved on the ground that project would lead to cutting of large number of trees. However, it has now been decided at the J&K Government level that ropeway can be installed even without cutting the trees by adopting the model of Patnitop where Gandola has been installed with minimum felling of trees.
Highlighting major factors driving ropeway infrastructure, officers said that being an aerial mode, building ropeways involves lower land acquisition costs. Hence, despite having a higher cost of construction per km than roadways, construction cost of ropeway projects happens to be more economical than that of roadways. Moreover, ropeways have an advantage of getting built in a straight line over a hilly terrain thus taking minimum time to cover distance.
Further, transportation via ropeways involves low dust emissions and material containers can be designed so as to rule out any soiling of the environment and ropeway projects can transport 6000-8000 passengers per hour.
When contacted, an officer of the Tourism Department confirmed that indications have been received from MoRTH about consideration of six ropeway projects in Phase-I. In Jammu and Kashmir, the Roads and Buildings Department will be the Nodal Agency for ensuring coordination with MoRTH, he added.
“We are expecting formal clearance of these ropeways by the MoRTH in the shortest possible time-frame”, the officer further said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
