Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 29: Envisioned more than a decade back, aerial ropeway at picturesque tourists destination of Patnitop is finally all set to become reality as Supreme Court of India has given much-awaited clearance to the project. This would be the second ropeway in Jammu region as the Apex Court has already cleared the Peer Kho-Bahu Fort Gandola.
Authoritative sources told EXCELSIOR that a Bench of the Supreme Court, which is called Green Court, comprising Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice J Chelameshwar and Justice A K Sikri has given approval to the construction of aerial ropeway at Patnitop, the major tourist attraction spot of Jammu region.
“Soon after receiving the formal copy of the approval from the Supreme Court within next few days, the same would be placed before the State Forest Advisory Committee headed by Chief Secretary, which otherwise is only a formality keeping in view the decision of the Apex Court”, sources said.
Stating that work on the project would begin soon after the State Forest Advisory Committee approval, sources informed that aerial ropeway at Patnitop has already been cleared by the State Wildlife Board, National Wildlife Board and Expert Appraisal Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
It took more than a decade to the project to reach the stage of execution as it was approved by the Patnitop Development Authority Board in January 2004 when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the Chief Minister. The foundation of the project was laid in May 2007 when Ghulam Nabi Azad was the Chief Minister.
During the past one decade numerous hurdles cropped up in way of starting work on the project because of the guidelines laid down by the Apex Court of the country especially for those projects planned for execution at the cost of green cover.
The Supreme Court’s verdict in the favour of project has come on the basis of the recommendations made by the Central Empowered Committee of the Apex Court comprising its Chairman P V Jayakrishanan and Members Mahendra Vyas and M K Muthoo, which conducted inspection of the project on June 4 last year.
Following the objections of the Central Empowered Committee over the number of trees to be axed and also the number of towers proposed for the ropeway, Patnitop Development Authority headed by its Chief Executive Officer, Raman Kesar and Hyderabad company—Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd carried out necessary changes in the Detailed Project Report in a time-bound manner and submitted supplementary affidavit before the Empowered Committee.
“As per the revised Detailed Project Report, now only 15 to 20 trees to be axed as against 115, which were earlier proposed to be cut”, sources said, adding “similarly, the number of towers has come down to 15 as against 27 proposed earlier. This becomes possible by raising the height of the ropeway as recommended by the Central Empowered Committee”.
When contacted, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Patnitop Development Authority, Raman Kesar confirmed that Supreme Court has cleared the aerial ropeway and said, “we were regularly chasing the project earlier before the Central Empowered Committee and then in the Supreme Court and finally we have reached the stage of execution”.
In response to a question, he said that the project involves construction and operation of a passenger aerial ropeway and associated facilities at Kud, Sangote and Karla.
One base terminal station of the ropeway would be at a point close to the 99-kilometer milestone on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway 1A while as the intermediate terminal will be near Sangote village. The upper terminal will be at Patnitop close to Hotel Vardan at a distance of 2618 meter from the intermediate terminal. The total length of the ropeway will be 3.8 kilometers, the CEO informed.
This project at Patnitop assumes much importance especially when National Highway is being diverted by way of construction of tunnel between Chenani and Nashri. The aerial ropeway would help in keeping alive this tourist resort even after the opening of tunnel.
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