To give a further boost to the tourism sector of the state, the Uttarakhand government may set up a series of ropeway projects at various tourist and religious centres of the hill state to make them more attractive.
However, most of these projects have hit roadblocks mainly due to the bureaucratic hurdles and lengthy processes of forest clearances and land acquisition.
The cynosure of these projects is the Mussoorie-Dehra Dun ropeway that would bring down the distance between the two areas to less than 40 minutes. Other ropeway projects are coming up at various famous religious centres like Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Poornagiri in the hill state.
After taking forest and environment clearances, the state tourism department last year invited bids from private players for the Mussoorie ropeway project which would be built with an investment of Rs 700-800 crore. The government cancelled the two bids it received but remained undecided on the future course of action.
The Uttarakhand Infrastructure Projects Company (UIPC) Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between the state government and IL&FS, had prepared the DPR of the project, which has the potential of becoming a major tourist attraction.
At present, the road distance between Mussoorie and Dehra Dun is 35 kms and one-hour drive. The Mussoorie-Dehra Dun ropeway project will be a gondola-type ropeway which will have the carrying capacity of taking 1100 passengers per hour. There will be three to four points where the cablecar would halt for two to four minutes. In these halting points, the department has proposed to build amusement parks and budget hotels.
The George Everest Estate, a historic site in Mussoorie, is also being renovated to its pristine glory as part of the ropeway project. For other ropeway projects like Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Poornagiri, the UIPC has not made any headway.
