Ropeways offer business opportunities not only as tourist attractions in hill stations, but also as cheaper means of urban transportation, capable of decongesting over-choked cities.

Some call it the cable car, some aerial lift, and yet some others prefer to call it aerial tramway.

Nomenclature aside, it has really caught the fancy of tourists, as evidenced by the hordes who don’t mind shelling out Rs 100 to 300 for a round trip of merely a few minutes in Mussoorie, Manali, or Raigad amongst others.

Leading Austrian ropeway manufacturers have opened new vistas in the business by commissioning ropeways for public transport in three Algerian cities and one in Caracas, Venezuela. The ropeway in the Algerian town of Constantine was opened to public in June 2008. It carries 24,000 persons everyday, even though it is operating from 9 am to 7 pm only. Its carrying capacity will increase further after the proposed increase in operating hours from 6 am to 11 pm. The other two cities in Algeria where this is being employed as means of public transport are Skikda and Tlemcen. Doppelmayr Garaventa, a leading manufacturer of ropeways, is in the process of commissioning a first time peak-to-peak gondola lift at Whistler BlackComb resort in Canada, where the gondola will connect the two peaks-Whistler and BlackComb.

“Ropeways are a reasonable means of... public transport,” says Ekkehard Assmann, head of marketing, Doppelmayr Garaventa.

“We have already proved this a number of times, though a lot of people think [only] mountains and even skiing when thinking about ropeways.”

Ropeways, which can reach speeds of 36 km/hr, can definitely be considered an alternative to skyways, metro trains, monorails, and low-floor buses as a means of public transport in congested areas of cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi. Apart from that, there are unexplored opportunities for regular mountain ropeways and skilifts.

Types of ropeways
There are various types of ropeways, but the most sought-after these days are detachable gondola ropeways and chairlifts, with gondolas being India’s favorite. Gondola ropeways are one of the most economical and reliable ropeway types to operate, providing comfort and safety at the same time. They are attached to a haul rope with detachable grips for safe and easy loading and unloading. The carriers, whose capacity vary from four to fifteen people, travel through the terminals at creep speed before accelerating to a line speed of up to 6 m/s. Gondolas can be used to carry as many as 3,600 persons per hour. Detachable chairlifts, on the other hand, can carry two to eight passengers, though they can be customized for high transport capacities — up to 4,000 persons per hour — with a top line speed of 5 m/s. Chairlifts are preferred by winter sports resorts as passengers can ride the lifts without having to remove their skis or boards.

Surface lifts, which account for more than half of the total number of ropeways worldwide, are cost-effective solutions for transporting skiers and snowboarders. They are always designed for local requirements and can be engineered to cater to special needs like glacier footings, parallel lines, and angled tracks. These can hit a speed of 3.5 m/s and can be customized to carry 1,500 persons per hour.

Ropeways are a reasonable means of public transport. We have already proved this a number of times though a lot of people think [only] mountains and even skiing when thinking about ropeways. Ekkehard Assmann, Head of Marketing, Doppelmayr Garaventa

Top ropeway manufacturers, including Doppelmayr and Leitner (together they control 90 percent of the manufacturing business), have their own technologies as well that provide unique lateral stability and can carry far more people. Funitel, for instance, is perfected by Doppelmayr. This involves two haul ropes placed 3.2 m apart. Long spans can easily be covered on funitels and they can withstand winds up to 100 km/hr. It can gather speed of 7.5 m/s and ferry up to 4,000 persons every hour. Another technology, is funifor, where haul ropes are connected to carriers via four horizontal bull wheels. Leitner has funiculars that run on tracks at a speed of around 12 m/s. They can have cabin capacities of up to 400 persons, carrying up to 8,000 persons every hour.

Traditional ropeways
Ropeways are traditionally operated in connection with tourism or pilgrimages, particularly in mountain areas. According to the estimates of International Organization for Transportation by Rope (OITAF), there are more than 30,000 ropeways functioning at the moment in the world. Of these, 58 percent are operational in the European Union countries, and are surface lifts that transport skiers and snowboarders uphill.

As the business of ropeways is in its infancy in India, there is no concrete data available on the exact number of ropeways in the country. They have also been perceived more as a romantic rendezvous or were constructed for facilitating pilgrims’ visits to the deities in the hills. The Naina Devi Ropeway project was executed way back in 1990 by Ganpati Ropeways in collaboration with Damodar Ropeways, and is claimed to be the first major ropeway project in India. Usha Breco (UBL) presently operates five passenger ropeways in the country. These are Maa Mansadevi Udan Khatola, Maa Chandidevi Udan Khatola in Hardwar (Uttarakhand), Maa Mahakalika Udan Khatola and Maa Ambaji Udan Khatola in Pawagadh and Gujarat respectively, and Malampuzha Udan Khatola in Palghat, Kerala. Kropivinik Cableways has based itself in Chandigarh to cater to the demands from the hills in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. There are also projects in Mussoorie, Shimla, Manali, Parwanu, and other hill stations. Some hotel owners have started installing ropeways as value addition to their existing properties. Various ropeway projects are under different phases of development at various places, from Bihar and Jharkhand to Andhra Pradesh, and from Kerala to Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Starting out on the manufacturing side may prove to be quite capital intensive and tedious, as it requires huge investments and efforts in research to ensure strong safety requirements and to tame unfriendly environments. Realistically speaking, India remains an operator country, thanks to tourism and the possibility of the use of ropeways to decongest over-choked cities.

“There is nothing like a price per meter ropeway. There are so many variables that have to be taken into consideration while calculating the cost of a project. We have to have a very close look at a given project to do a sound calculation,” says Ekkehard Assmann. “Factors affecting cost requirements include topography of a place, carrier capacity, needs of the client operators, span of the ropeway, and ropeway technology chosen. Costs also depend on what you mean by ropeway business. If you want to build one surface lift you probably can get it even for EUR 200,000, but for a new resort, it will be much more.”

Even the original manufacturers have European partnerships or connections. Kropivnik Cableways, for instance, is promoted by Austrian-born Florian Kropivnik. UBL is a collaboration of Usha Martin with a specialized ropeway manufacturer of Britain, British Ropeway Engineering.

Setting up a ropeway business can, thus, take anywhere from a few to hundreds of crores. RITES is working on a project in Rajgir, Bihar, that is pegged at Rs 8.5 crore. Contrast this to the Rs 300 crore project of installing a ropeway between Tirupati and Tirumala. The Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority launched a ropeway project in August this year from the seashore to the summit of the Kailasgiri hill at an estimated cost of Rs 3.5 crore.

There are many obstacles to planning and implementing ropeway projects. They come from several quarters — developers, civic bodies, landowners, tourism departments, environment activists, forest department, courts, villagers, and town planners — and one needs to be prepared to manage these along the way.

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Learn more about cable transit
written by Steven Dale, April 11, 2010

If you'd like to learn more about cable propelled transit solutions, check out www.gondolaproject.com.

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Director-Civil Engineer
written by Leo Guerra, May 09, 2009

I am civil engineer living in Bogota, Colombia, South America. At this time State directors are trying to solve the urban transportation for this city of over 8 million people. Discussions are being held to decide about the different solutions to the many problems associated with this issue. I would like to consider a different solution to offer the city. It has to do with chairlifts or ropeways, but I have a different approach to tackle the problem, which I would like to discuss with you, and with what I believe might reduce the costs dramatically. Our country has a developing economy, but we are still a third world one.
Please confirm me via email if you think you are interested and if I am writting to the correct people or address.
Thanks a lot.
Leo Guerra
(polkiwar@gmail.com)

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