Ropeway at Tirumala to be longest in the world

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 4. The ropeway, being taken up as a mass transport system to carry pilgrims to Tirumala from Tirupati town, on completion, will be the world's longest such facility stretching for a length of 6.1 km.

Ropeways are synonymous with hilly countries like Switzerland and Austria but their length is not more than 2 to 3 km. on an average.

The ambitious project, to cost Rs 90 crores, has seen the light of the day at last with the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) calling for international bids for execution. According to Mr K. Sanjay, APTDC's Joint Manager (Projects), who provided these details to The Hindu here on Tuesday, the ropeway starts at the foothills near the Bangalore Bypass Road where an all-amenity Visitors' Zone is being developed on a 140-acre site to serve as the boarding point and ends at the main entrance on the hill-top after crossing the windmills.

The cables are to be laid based on the poles to be installed in alignment across the forests and there will be 100 cable-cars, each with a capacity to carry a maximum of 10 pilgrims. Moving at a speed of six metres per second, the cable-cars will take 20 minutes to reach the destination. Initial estimate is that the ropeway will facilitate transport of at least 2,000 devotees to the top in an hour. The fare is yet to be decided.

According to Mr Sanjay, five Indian firms having their own tie- ups with foreign manufacturers from countries like Austria, Holland and France--Balaji Tourism (Dopple Mayor), VBC Group and Larsen and Toubro (Lietner), Neelambar Ropeways (Garavanta), Jog Engineering (Hordand), and GMR Group (Poma) have responded to the bid offer. One party from among them will be selected in the coming few days and allowed to implement the project on BOOT basis. Once grounded, the ropeway will take 18 months to assume the final shape. The equipment, including the cable-cars, will be imported.

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