Eleven people including five women were reportedly stranded for hours recently after a cable car was stuck mid-air in Himachal Pradesh Solan district. All of them were rescued after a six-hour-long operation. The cable car carrying 11 tourists had got stuck at a height of around 200-250 feet near a mountain peak. A rescue cable car was reportedly deployed to get the people out. It may be recalled that in April this year three tourists were killed and almost 70 others rescued in a 45-hour operation after two cable cars collided mid-air at Trikut Hills in Jharkhand’s Deoghar. Two of the victims fell to their deaths while being pulled up to the helicopters. The massive rescue operation involved two MI-17 helicopters. The first major ropeway accident in India reportedly took place in January 2003 in Gujarat where seven people lost their lives and 20 others were injured after three cable cars crashed. More recently four tourists lost their lives after two cable cars fell from the ropeway into a ravine in West Bengal’s Darjeeling in October 2019. These mishaps have once again brought to the fore safety issues regarding ropeways and other amusement facilities. India, or the world, is no stranger to such freak accidents, and several incidents have been reported over the last few years. All safety measures need to be taken while operating these ropeways. This includes proper maintenance of the cable cars and other equipment used.
