ARE CABLE CARS SAFE?
After the tragic ropeway accident in Jharkhand’s Deoghar district which claimed three lives, it has become imperative to make sure that all the safety norms are being followed in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as far as different cable car projects are concerned because it is always better to learn lessons from the previous mistakes. It is pertinent to mention that two workers were killed and four others injured in January 2019 after a cable car of the under-construction Jammu ropeway project crashed near Mahamaya Temple in Jammu. In this context, the nerve-racking experience through which nearly a score of tourists passed was near Parwano in Himachal Pradesh about 35 Km from Chandigarh where a para commando abseiling down to a cable car dangling 3,000 feet from the ground rescued ten tourists in 1992 in the famous daredevil mission called Timber Trail Operation. The victims in Jammu and Deoghar accidents were not so lucky, especially the Deoghar incident because despite the Indian Air Force along with Army, ITBP and NDRF taking charge of the situation, three persons had lost lives. Reportedly, the organization managing cable car operations in J&K has claimed that it follows all the safety norms including those of national and international standards to ensure safety of cable car users so that chances of Jharkhand type incidents remains nil here but the big question is that whether in Jharkhand’s case and that of Timber Trail, the safety norms were ignored. The answer to this as far as documentary proofs are concerned is a big no but the accidents do happen and people lost lives as the system malfunctioned and things went out of control. The Centre has rightly asked all the States and Union Territories to carry out a safety audit of each ropeway project and put in place Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to deal with such situations. J&K should not show any kind of reluctance in the matter and should once again take necessary measures to make things failsafe. The most important aspect is the rescue plan because the authorities operating these cable cars should have a ready reckoner to act swiftly in case of any exigency like in Jharkhand. There are ways by which the damage caused by accidents like that of Deoghar can be minimized and that should be the approach instead of saying that the system in place is foolproof.