The ropeway will cover a distance of around two kilometres in eight minutes.
Guwahati:
The country’s longest river ropeway, connecting the north and south banks of the Brahmaputra river, was inaugurated on Monday in Guwahati, after a series of stops and starts since 2006. The two-km long ropeway is being considered as an engineering marvel as this is for the first time that the ropeway towers were made deep inside the bed of a major river in the country.
The one of its kind ropeway across river Brahmaputra was inaugurated by Assam health and education minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma and Guwahati development department (GDD) minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya.
The ropeway connects Kachari ghat located on the southern bank of the river in the main city to the northern part of Guwahati.
A distance of around two kilometres will be covered by the ropeway which will bring down the travelling time by eight minutes.
Till now people from North Guwahati used to commute to the main city either by boats, ferries or by road which used to take 45 minutes to over one hour.
The cable car cabin, which is built in Switzerland, can carry 30 passengers and one operator, and can handle movement of 250 persons per hour.
One way of the ride will cost Rs 60, while a two-way commute will cost Rs 100.
The foundation stone of the project was laid in December 2009. But there have been several roadblocks.
It was scheduled to be commissioned by May 2011, but work was stalled after the Archaeological Survey of India or ASI in February, 2011 disallowed permission for the tilt rectification of well foundation number two from Urvashi Island (a heritage site), citing introduction of new ASI Act, 2010. Later the tower alignment was shifted and ASI gave the required permission.
The 2km bi-cable jig-back ropeway will pass over Peacock Island , which houses the Umananda Temple. It is the smallest human habituated river island in the world.
The ropeway’s southern terminal is very close to the famous Doul Govinda Temple.
While enroute, alongside the Brahmaputra river , Neelachal hills that houses the Kamakhya temple and the Saraighat bridge could be seen from the ropeway cabin.
