Context

After the Jharkhand incident of ropeway accident Ministry of Home Affairs has directed the states to prepare Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs).

Background

• Recent Jharkhand incident has highlighted the urgent need to have detailed SOPs for ropeway service.
• Ministry of Home Affairs has sent advisory to the Chief Secretaries of the states to prepare for detailed SOPs for ropeway services.

Analysis

Legislation available till now:

• Aerial Ropeways Act, 2002 had been passed the government to development various ropeways in the country.
• Apart from central legislation various states have their own legislation regarding ropeway services and maintenance.

What are the recent developments done by the government?

• States like Uttarakhand has signed Memorandum of Understanding with Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways to build up ropeway links.
• In the Budget 2022, Ministry of Finance has announced to develop 8 new ropeway services.
• PARVATMALA- An efficient and safe alternate transport network: Under the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways this scheme will be implemented in a PPP model, for various Himalayan states and North-East states.

What are the majors driving factors driving ropeway infrastructure?

• Economical mode of transportation
• Safer and Alternate mode of transportation in difficult hilly terrain: Ropeways are built in a straight line over the hilly terrain which can reduce the cost of land acquisition. And provide an alternate and faster mode of transportation.
• Faster mode of transportation: Ropeway services can provide a faster mode of transportation as compared to roadways
• Environment friendly: Low dust emissions. Material can be designed to rule out any soiling of environment.
• Last mile connectivity

What are benefits from ropeway services?

• Ideal for difficult and sensitive terrain.
• Tourism sector: It can promote tourism sector in the hilly and North Eastern states.
• A new set of economy can be generated by the development of ropeway services.
• Transportation flexibility: Ropeways have the capacity to carry various types of materials
• Ability to handle large slopes: It has the capacity to handle higher gradient as compared to roadways
• Low footprint: it can be built and operated on the areas where there is higher land use is in intense competition.
• Security and Surveillance: It can provide a faster means of transport to the armed forces in difficult terrain to handle the extremist activity and maintain peace and security at various places.
• Better border management: even it has the capacity to manage border areas and manage security set up for external stand-offs.

What are the major challenges lie ahead?

• Policy bottlenecks
• Quality check procedure
• Safety guidelines
• Public awareness

What are steps that need to be taken?

• Decentralized policy measures
• Proper Standard Operating Procedures and safety measures
• Terrain specific policy measures

Conclusion

Ropeways have the potential to serve a diversified sector for India. This can provide a safe cushion to the ongoing and upcoming economical, developmental and security challenges in various areas.