It is many years that we hear two ropeways coming up in Jammu, one at Patnitop and the other at Mubarak Mandi. Great fanfare, great media hype, loud noise about the bulk of money to be invested and allurement to tourists projected — all this has been happening but the ropeway is nowhere in sight though years have been rolling by. The Patnitop Ropeway has a bizarre history of its own. Anybody interested in knowing the tortuous march of files through bureaucratic lanes and by-lanes should study the history of Patnitop Ropeway Project. It is simply harrowing. Same is true about Mubarak Mandi. Will this dream ever come true is what ordinary Jammuite asks. It is so because he knows how much uninterested the administration is.
As against this, take the case of two ropeways—- one passenger and another material—- being executed by the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board going to become functional in December next year i.e. within a period of one year from now. One of the passenger ropeways is being constructed from Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan to Bhairon Ghati, a distance of about two kilometers while the material ropeway is being constructed from Siar Dabri in Katra to Bhawan. The passenger ropeway will ferry about 10000 pilgrims per day while the material ropeway is expected to lift 60 tonnes of material to Bhawan per day.
The question is when the Shrine Board has shown its capability of making two ropeways functional within a period of one year, why the Government or the Tourism Department is not able to complete the two ropeways of Patnitop and Mubarak Mandi for so many years till date?
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