Four hour ordeal for 34 aboard Jabli cable car

The rescued passengers said that although the system operated fine initially, it suddenly got stuck at about 3:30 p.m. The tourists, including nine children and a few elderly persons, were travelling in six of the total of eight trolleys functioning at the time.

It could have been worse. Today8217;s incident called to mind the 1992 Timber Trail incident at Parwanoo, which left two persons dead and a few passengers hanging in the air for more than two days.

Today, the fate of riders hung in balance for a full five hours laced with risk. It was only after the rescue teams were called and trolleys brought down manually that the passengers believed quot;there was life beyondquot;. Most of the passengers were brought down with the help of ladders after bringing the trolleys near to land.

quot;We kept the atmosphere live when stuck mid-air,8221; said Bansi Dhar Gupta from Varanasi. Rajinder Singh Chadha from Kanpur, travelling with his family, said: quot;We kept our morale high and villagers provided us courage and help by sending water and eatables.quot;

Videocon branch manager at Lucknow, Salil Mishra, who was organising the picnic for the dealers complained that quot;the company management did not allow us to call the fire brigade or other help. They delayed the rescue operations8221;.

The passengers later told Newsline that panic among the tourists was reduced after food and water was sent to them and rescue teams kept assuring them of help. Their relatives down were, however, seen panicking and got a sigh of relief only when they arrived back.

quot;We came to have a joy ride, least knowing that we would suffer like this,quot; said Shashi Bhushan, a resident of Panchkula and a commission agent in the grain market who had taken his 12-member family along. The family, which included his aged parents and infants, had to walk down at least 2 km after being brought down from the trolley.

Today8217;s incident however, differed in some respects from the Timber Trail disaster. The ropeway had not snapped this time unlike that at Timber Trail. With the second ropeway project in the state getting stuck midway, a question mark has been put on the functioning of ropeways in the state.

The last trolley to be brought down at 10 p.m. carried a five-member Bhandari-Khanna family from Panchkula. Among those rescued last included 67-year-old Shanti Devi and her two grandchildren, who on reaching down said: quot;It was God8217;s grace that saved us. We kept remembering God all the while.quot;

Most of the passengers were dealers of Videocon group who had come with their families from Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad and Varanasi to attend a dealers8217; conference at Shimla and were on their way back. Most of them were rescued by 8 p.m.

Though no inquiry has yet been ordered, Solan SDM L.R. Chauhan and SDM R.K. Dhiman, who had reached the spot soon after knowing about the incident, told Newsline: quot;Suitable action would be initiated soonquot;.

The lone fire brigade available at the site could not start by itself and carried no hydraulic ladder. The rescue operations were however, delayed as the ropeway management tried to rectify the fault first. A foreign technical expert was called from Chandigarh. He supervised the operation to move the ropeway manually to enable rescue of the passengers.

Managing Director of K.K. Ropeways, K.K. Kashyap, the promoter of the project, told Newsline that quot;Voltage fluctuation had caused some problems in the main switchboard resulting in the burning of a panel which led to the collapse of the entire computerised system.8221;

The project has been implemented with Austrian collaboration, with its Indian partner Croppivnik Cable Ways Limited having the contract to maintain the ropeway for the next 10 years.