The ropeway is situated around 20 km from the famous Baba Baidyanath temple in Deoghar district.
The ropeway is situated around 20 km from the famous Baba Baidyanath temple in Deoghar district.
At least two people are dead and 48 are said to be stuck in 12 cable cars of a ropeway at Trikut hills in Deoghar district of Jharkhand. Deoghar is famous for the Baba Baidyanath (lord Shiva) temple where thousands of people offer prayer every day.
The rescue operation has been under way for the last 20 hours to save those stuck inside the 12 cables of the ropeway. Four people can be accommodated in a cable car, district officials said on Monday.
The incident appeared to have occurred on April 10 due to some technical snag resulting in midair collision of cable cars.
The ropeway manager and other employees fled the spot after the incident happened, local journalists told The Hindu.
The ropeway is situated around 20 km from the Baba Baidyanath temple. It is around 766 metres long and has 25 cable cars. The Trikut hills on which the ropeway is operational is 392 metres high.
The Jharkhand tourism department says that Trikut hills ropeway is India’s highest vertical ropeway.
“The real cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained”, said an official of the Jharkhand government preferring anonymity.
Meanwhile, family members of those stuck inside cable cars have gathered at the spot and expressed anger over delay in rescue operations.
A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) along with Army helicopters have been pressed into rescue operations, said Deoghar Deputy Commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri. He along with other top district officials have been camping at the spot and monitoring the rescue operations.
“Getting information about the incident I immediately brought it to the notice of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Jharkhand Chief Secretary and requested them for deployment of NDRF teams there for rescue operations”, BJP MP from neighboring district Godda Nishikant Dubey told journalists.
The Army helicopter was trying to lift people from inside the cable cars but after several attempts failed because of the wires, said local journalists.
The officials were trying to rescue the people through other methods, but it would take some time and it was risky as well, they added.