Since the Metro Rail projects are being rejected from Uttarakhand and many other states, especially in hills area and mountainous regions, now many state governments are looking forward to establishing the PRT, Cable cars and Ropeway systems as the public transport to increase the reach in their state.
The government is taking an interest in the passenger’s ropeway systems. It is also taken into consideration that the Ropeway system can be an alternative for offering urban transport.
Ropeways system is a sort of naval lifting device mainly used to transport light stores and facilities over rivers or ravines.
Personal rapid transit (PRT) which is referred to as pod cars. This is a public transport mode emphasising small automated transports working on a network of specially built guideways. Personal rapid transit is a kind of automated guideway transit, a class of system that also involves larger carriers to small subway systems.
To implement this Ropeway system, the govt has asked to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to execute this ahead. This step by the government to improve the transportation system seems to be very necessary as there is no option of Metro apart from Ropeways, Cable cars or PRT.
This transit system has a lot of benefits also which are as follows – it is low pollution and crowding removal transit because this system has the lowest carbon emissions in the comparison of all the other transit options. Also, this transit system option is an old tested and tried option that is operating successfully across the world. Ropeways system are very environmentally friendly till now because as we can see, there is no need to cut forests as they could not be under the corridor of the transit system.
Apart from this, the government has also gone through the safety and grade of the services NITI Aayog has suggested globally accepted European CEN standards. Also, there are different standards available like Canadian/American standards but among that so many of the technologies to make sure the security of the ropeways throughout market segments commencing urban transport, tourism, adventure, leisure, etc have taken by CEN standards as a standard for safest, high-quality and the reliable ropeways systems.
An MoU signed between Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik for Uttrakhand Metro Rail Corporation and S.D. Sharma, Director (BD) of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in Dec 2019. The DMRC was entrusted with the task of preparing a detailed project report (DPR) for the development of ropeway in Dehradun, Uttrakhand. DPR will be ready within the next four to six months. After this, the transport system will be started through ropeway in about two years.
Madan Kaushik, Uttarakhand Urban Development Minister, said that the number of tourists in Dehradun is continuously growing and the requirement of the population is also increasing regularly.
In such a condition, the Govt has taken this significant step for the betterment of the public transport. If everything goes as per plan, it will take two and a half years to complete . This project will cost ost around Rs 2,000 crore will be much lower cost than the metro rail transit system(MRTS).
Initially, two corridors will be developed for the ropeway project. There will be pods/cars having 10-12 passengers capacity which will run on the ropeway. The 1st corridors will be built up to Respna via Ghantaghar from FRI, and the 2nd corridor will be built from ISBT to Rajpur Road.
It is acknowledged as a breakthrough to improve the transport system of Dehradun. The Uttarakhand government insists that till now the ropeway system is not being used for public transport in any other place and city of the country. In such a condition, Doon city will be the first city in India to have a ropeway system as public transport.
After signing the MoU, the Uttarakhand government has also issued the first instalment of Rs 43 lakh to DMRC for making the DPR.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Uttarakhand Government has spent over Rs 5,000 crore in conducting feasibility and finalising detailed project reports of Dehradun Light Metro Rail.
Dehradun Ropeway Project Highlights
- Ropeway will run within 20 to 25 km.
- Rs 2000-2200 crores will be spent on the ropeway project.
- The DPR of the ropeway project will be ready in 6 months.
- The project has to be prepared between 2 years after the tender.
- Initially, two routes will be constructed under the Ropeway project.
- The first route will be made from FRI to Respna via Ghantaghar
- The second will go from ISBT to Rajpur Road (Kandoli).
- The transport capacity of a ropeway will be about 10-12 passengers.
The Article first appeared in Metro Rail News April 2020 (Volume IV, Issue 40, Page No 42-43) | Subscribe Now