5-km long Doon-Mussoorie Ropeway dream project to become reality soon

Conceived 11 years ago during the BC Khanduri government, Uttarakhand government has finally laid the foundation stone for the Dehradun-Musssoorie ropeway project which is considered to be a tourist novelty.

The Rs 300-crore ropeway project, for which the foundation stone was laid on Wednesday by current chief minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat, is expected to complete in three years. With technical support from Poma, a French cable manufacturing company, the ropeway will be built on the PPP mode.

"This will be one of the world's longest ropeways," said Rawat. It will shorten the one-hour hill ride connecting Dehradun to Mussoorie to just 15 minutes from Purkul village as the base camp at Dehradun.

Under the scheme, Uttarakhand has sought Rs 50 crore from the Centre as viability gap funding for the project. It was among a series of ropeway projects conceived on PPP mode at various tourist and religious centres of the hill state of Uttarakhand during the B.C. Khanduri government.

Once opened, the Doon-Mussoorie Ropeway will provide tourists a direct route from the airport to the Purkal village from where the ropeway will take them to Mussoorie directly. It is being built on river Ganga to decongest Rishikesh and Haridwar.

The state's tourism department has plans to build a number of ropeways, including one connecting Dehradun and Mussoorie and others connecting Kedarnath Temple, Yamunotri Temple, Hemkund Sahib, Nainital among others to ease traffic congestion on roads.

Project Details:

Starting point is Purkulgaon (30°24'47"N; 78°4'2"E), where 5.6 hectares of land is already owned by the Tourism Department, Uttarakhand, out of which 4.2 hectares would be used for proposed
ropeway terminal, multi-level parking and associated basic facilities. The current land-use for
the said land is "Commercial" as per existing bye-laws.

The End Point will be MDDA taxi stand (30°27'35.5"N; 78° 3'58.5"E), about 1.7 hectares of land owned by Nagar Palika of Mussoorie, which would be used for proposed ropeway terminal, multi-level parking and associated basic facilities. The current land-use for the said land is already designated "Tourism" as per existing bye-laws.

The proposed 5.5-km ropeway alignment will run from Purkulgaon to taxi stand passing over Kyarkulli bhatta gaon, Astel Estate and Ciffin Code Estate. About 23 intermediate towers would fall in the corridor. About 75 cabins both ways will be in use carrying 10 passengers in each at atime.

Here is the route map of Doon-Mussoorie road:

The ropeway will be a Mono-cable Detachable Gondola Technology as per European Union standards, with a capacity of 1000 PPHPD which would take about 15 minutes to travel. The project is estimated to be about Rs. 300 crores but may reach Rs.400 crore by the time it is completed.

Apart from reducing the congestion and traffic jams during peak hours, the project is likely to reduce air and noise pollution on the road to Mussoorie and also reduce parking problems on the hill station.
As it can be operated in rain and snow, traffic flow between the cities will considerably come down during these adverse conditions, said the government in its project proposal.