Ghaziabad: Proposal for urban ropeway project forwarded to Centre for approval

The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has forwarded a formal proposal of the urban passenger ropeway project in Ghaziabad to the ministry of road transport and highways (Morth) for approval while the permission for the project at the local-level will be sought in the authority’s board meeting scheduled on January 7, said officials in the know of the matter on Wednesday.

The GDA’s ropeway project has been planned as an alternative to a Metro extension to connect Mohan Nagar on the Red line and Vaishali on the Blue line of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in Ghaziabad. General (retired) V K Singh, who is also minister of state for road transport and highways and civil aviation and also and MP from Ghaziabad, floated the proposal earlier this year.

“We have forwarded a formal proposal of the ropeway project to the Morth for approval after we received the in-principle approval for the project at a meeting, which was attended by General Singh and other officials of the Centre, earlier in December. We will put forward the proposal before the GDA board in the upcoming board meeting, from where it will be routed to the state government,” said Ahish Shivpuri, GDA’s chief architect and town planner.“Once we get the approval from all the concerned authorities, the project may get a head start in June/July next year. As discussed, the Centre will bear 20% of the project cost, 60% will be borne by the agency which will develop the project and the GDA’s share will be 20%,” said Shivpuri.

Ropeway is a transport system for ferrying goods or people, especially in mountainous areas or mines, wherein the carrier cars are suspended with the help of moving cables powered by a motor system.Earlier in October, the cost of the project, which was originally pegged at 487 crore, was reduced to 450 crore.GDA officials said the entire ropeway project will be elevated on 27 pillars and will move over the Regional Rapid Transit System alignment near Sahibabad.

The project’s detailed project report has proposed four stations for the ropeway at Mohan Nagar, Sahibabad, Vasundhara and Vaishali. The first and the last stations will be connected to the respective Metro stations with the help of 150m-long skywalks, which will be constructed by the GDA.According to the DPR estimates, a passenger will have to shell out a minimum fare of 20 and a maximum of 30 for travelling the entire distance. It is also estimated that the ropeway system will be used by 80,000 passengers in a week once it begins full-fledged operations.