After a long wait, the operation of the Joshimath-Auli ropeway resumed on Thursday. A large number of tourists wanting to visit Auli from Joshimath will be able to reach the winter sports destination conveniently using the ropeway. However, a new rescue engine has not been fixed to the carrier as planned earlier.
Since the SAF Winter Games were held here in 2010-11, the Joshimath-Auli ropeway has been out of operation due to technical snag. After a gap of about four years, the operation of the ropeway was resumed for visitors on Thursday.
As the snow on the Joshimath-Auli road is hampering vehicular traffic, the resumption of the ropeway’s operation comes as a welcome development especially for the tourists and those involved in various tourism related businesses in the area. The first batch of tourists- 10 of them, left for Auli from Joshimath in the ropeway.
The electrical engineer of Space Age Company, Farooq Ahmed who was involved in the repairs of the ropeway said that the ropeway has been computerised and set on the auto mode which mean that the ropeway will automatically stop in case of any snag.
The ropeway has been handed over to the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN). According to official sources, a new rescue engine has not been fixed to the carrier whereas the fixing of a rescue engine was also directed as part of the repairs. On this, the company engineer said that the old engine will be replaced after it becomes inoperable.
However, observers point out that fitting of a new rescue engine had been mentioned in the tender for this task. Questions are being raised about the functioning of the GMVN as the corporation has taken over the ropeway without the work on it being completed as stipulated earlier.