The long pending Guwahati passenger ropeway project connecting the northern and southern banks of the city will be completed by February 2019.
A source in Guwahati Metropolitan Developmental Authority (GMDA) said, “The construction work of the new Foundation Well Number 2 is almost complete and the trial run of the ropeway will start from February 2019.”
The project was scheduled to have been commissioned in May, 2011, but work was stopped by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in February, 2011. Permission for tilt rectification of Foundation Well Number 2 (Pillar T-2) was not given at Urvashi Island.
The GMDA got the permission in 2015 but with the condition of relocating the pillar (T-2) beyond 300 metres of the Urvashi Island.
Accordingly, the pillar has been constructed at the south bank (near Kamrup Metro Deputy Commissioner’s office), and construction work for the other four pillars has almost been completed, the GMDA source added.
The distance of the ropeway will be 1.8 kilometres with the south bank station inside the forest campus near Kamrup Metro Deputy Commissioner’s office and the north bank station at a hillock behind Doul Govinda temple. There will be two cabins with a passenger carrying capacity of 30 persons in each.
In 2008, Samir Damodor Ropeways Pvt Ltd was awarded the construction work on turnkey design and execution basis and the same agency has been continuing the work.
The GMDA source said that though the permission to continue with the ropeway project was received from the Centre in 2015, the then state government did not immediately sanction the funds. After the new government came to power, the project was put on the priority list, he added.
The source also said that during the monsoon season it was difficult to continue with the work as the water level of the river remained high causing delays.
The ropeway project was earlier assigned to GMDA in 2006. RITES Limited, a Govt. of India enterprise which is an engineering consultancy company specializing in the field of transport infrastructure, prepared a Detailed Project Report (DPR) in 2006. The foundation stone of the project was laid on 4th December, 2009. ropeway was stalled in February, 2011 but work resumed in 2016.
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