By IANS
Jaipur : Rajasthan government’s ambitious ropeway project here has been dropped following the forest department’s refusal to give clearance.
“We have dropped the project after forest department said no to it”, an official of Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) told IANS here Tuesday.
Sources in JDA said that the forest department was not even ready to give permission for undertaking a survey for the project. A portion of the project area was falling under forest zone and the department was not ready to bend any rules, they added.
The Rs.140-million ropeway project was to connect Kanak-Vrindavan to Jaigarh and Nahargarh forts in the outskirts of Jaipur.
The state’s first state-of-the-art ropeway was to be about 650 feet high and it would have taken 10 minutes for a carriage cab to reach from Kanak-Vrindavan to the other end. From there, a regular bus service was planned to ferry passengers to Nahargarh and Jaigarh forts.
But the state government has plans to develop two other ropeways, one in the lake city of Udaipur and another in Mount Abu, the only hill station of the state.
These projects are likely to be implemented on build, own and transfer (BOT) basis, and are estimated to cost around Rs.12.5 million.
“Technical and commercial assessment have already been completed for Mount Abu and Udaipur,” sources in the state government said, and added that bidding for the two projects was expected to start soon.
In Mount Abu, the ropeway project would be developed for going up to Adhar Devi temple, the ancient cave temple situated on a hilltop. More than half a million people visit the temple every year, especially during the Hindu festival of Navaratras.
The ropeway in Udaipur is proposed to be developed for the Neemuch Mata temple, which is situated on a hilltop. People have to climb 555 steps to reach the temple.