Govt to develop 200 ropeway projects worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore in five years: Nitin Gadkari

Union minister Nitin Gadkari said the government will develop 200 ropeway projects at a cost of Rs 1.25 lakh crore in coming five years under the National Ropeways Development Programme, “Parvatmala Pariyojana”.

Addressing a ‘Ropeway: Symposium-Cum-Exhibition’on Tuesday, Gadkari called for developing ropeways as part of the urban rapid transport system to decongest our cities and reduce pollution as well as the travel time.

“Our foremost priority should be to make ropeways economically viable by bringing down the overall project cost and encourage public private partnership to develop the ropeway network in the country,” he said.


Apart from facilitating tourism in the hilly areas, the ropeway offers huge potential in the urban public transport as well, Gadkari said.

“The government will provide 60% construction support under hybrid annuity mode (HAM for Ropeways) as compared to 40% support provided under national highways to attract more private players for development of ropeways under Parvatmala Pariyojana,” he said, adding while states will provide the land for development of ropeways, there will be no environmental clearance needed for such projects.

According to Gadkari, focus should be on developing indigenous and cost-efficient solutions without compromising on safety.

“Priority is to bring standardization of existing policies and codes and transform the ropeway industry by encouraging the manufacturing of ropeway components under the Make in India initiative,” he added.

The ministry of road transport and highways, on Tuesday, awarded two ropeway projects, Bijli Mahadev Ropeway project in Himachal Pradesh and Dhosi Hill Ropeway project in Haryana.

Besides, the National Highways Logistics Management entered into an MoU with IIT Roorkee for creating a center of excellence for ropeways and other innovative alternate mobility systems.

Gadkari is of the view that ropeways hold immense potential to positively impact tourism and job creation in the country.

“India is on its path to become a $5 trillion economy and we aim to be the third largest economy as against 5th now with focus on time-bound, cost-efficient, qualitative and sustainable infrastructure development,” he added.