Asia

Explained: About Parwanoo’s Timber Trail Ropeway Where Tourists Got Stuck

June 20, 2022
Henry Club

On 13 October 1992, at least 11 people, including an attendant, were trapped after a cable wire broke when a cable car dangled 1,300-feet above the Kaushalya River. A subsequent rescue operation by the Indian Air Force and the Army lasted for two days until the last of those trapped were pulled out.

When did the Timber Trail Ropeway arrive?

The 1.8 kilometer ropeway between two hills at Parwanoo was originally established by a Hyderabad-based company, Arcoinfra Ropeway, in 1988 for RK Garg, the owner of Timber Trail Resorts. The ropeway was designed to handle a maximum capacity of about 1,000 passengers per hour and to cover a distance of 1.8 km in approximately 8–9 minutes.

How does this ropeway work and who maintains it?

The Timber Trail is a bicycling ropeway and its cable cars are called gondola cabins.

Each cabin runs on two cables which are designed according to the specified load to be carried.

“Bickable ropeways are considered the safest aerial ropeway technology around the world. Unless maintenance is extremely poor, ropes usually do not break. Even if one cable breaks, the cabin will not collapse as the other rope does Will catch her,” said Sanjay Singh, GM (Ropeway Projects, Arconinfra Ropeway).

He said Arkoninfra Ropeway handed over the project to the resort owners after completion.

“We executed the project and handed it over to the owners of the resort. After that we’ve signed agreements where the owners have said they don’t want us to keep it. They have their own technical manpower for the maintenance of the ropeway,” said Singh.

What are the safety measures to prevent ropeway accidents?

Section 20 of the Himachal Pradesh Aerial Ropeway Act, 1968 covers accidents, rescue operations, compensation and liability of the operator/promoter of the ropeway throughout the state.

Regarding reporting a ropeway accident, the Act states that when “an accident occurs during the operation of an aerial ropeway, the promoter shall send a notice of the accident to the State and the inspectorate”. It is the responsibility of the promoter to inform the District Magistrate and the local police about any accident without delay.

Section 20-A of the same Act under ‘rescue operation’ reads, “If the State Government incurs any expenditure in the course of any rescue operation, the promoter shall be liable to pay that expenditure.”

Under section 20-B of the Act, in case of an accident, the promoter is liable to provide “comprehensive insurance cover in the prescribed manner to persons availing aerial ropeway services”, adding that the “State Government” shall will not be liable for any claim due to any accident or mishap in the projects.

The rate of comprehensive insurance is decided by the state on the advice of an expert committee.

Are there more ropeway projects coming up in Himachal?

In January, the Himachal government announced 13 more ropeway projects with a total length of 111.65 km at an estimated cost of Rs 5,644 crore.

These will include one in Pangi Valley of Chamba district (proposed ropeway from Bhanodi to Kilar via Sach Pass – 21.7 kms); Three ropeways are proposed in Kullu district (Prini and Hamta Pass in Manali with a length of 5.8 km; second at Manali with 11.2 km length and third with 2.7 km length between Manali and Labadug).

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A 13.5-km long ropeway project is proposed between Palampur, Thathri to Chunja glacier in Kangra district, while another 14-km ropeway project is to be set up at Dharamsala. In Shimla, a ropeway is proposed between Narkanda-Hatu peaks at a distance of 3.10 km, while another with a length of 22.4 km has been proposed.

Ropeway projects will come up in Kasauli (3 km) in Solan district Bilaspur Between Lunhu and Bandla (3 km), and at Churdhar in Sirmaur with a length of 8 km. A 3 km ropeway project has also been proposed between Shikavari and Bhatkidhar in Mandi district.