Days after three people were killed in a ropeway accident in Jharkhand's Deoghar, the Ministry of Home Affairs has sent an advisory to all states to prepare standard operating procedures and contingency plans for the operation of ropeways. In a letter to Chief Secretaries of all states on Tuesday, Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said, “This [Jharkhand] incident has highlighted the need to have a detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and a contingency plan on ropeway operations, so as to prevent the occurrence of any such incident in the future. .I would, therefore, urge you to take a review of the situation in respect of all the ropeway projects in your state and ensure that SOPs, contingency plans for operation and maintenance of ropeways, and system of safety audits are in place.” Bhalla said that for the operation and maintenance of ropeway projects, BIS Standards have already been prescribed, which need to be adhered to. “The necessary guidance in this regard may be taken from the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), which is the nodal organisation under the Ministry of Road, Transport, and Highways, Government of India,” the letter said. It asked the state governments to engage experienced and qualified firms or organisations for carrying out a safety audit of each ropeway project. It urged the states to ensure the entity operating the ropeway complies with all the issues arising out of the audit. “For each ropeway project, a maintenance manual must be prepared. In addition to the maintenance manual, there should be a maintenance programme so that the safety standards conform to good industry practices. The entity operating the ropeways must maintain a record of all the activities undertaken as part of the maintenance programme,” the letter said. It asked the states to ensure that mock drills/mock exercises for handling contingency situations involving ropeways are periodically conducted. “You may like to designate a senior officer of an appropriate level to regularly review the preparedness measures in respect of ropeway operations as per the SOPs and contingency plan,” it said.
