The Rs 2,000-crore ropeway project to connect ISBT with Mall Road and Shimla’s Ridge. (Source: Express Photo by Lalit Kumar) The Rs 2,000-crore ropeway project to connect ISBT with Mall Road and Shimla’s Ridge. (Source: Express Photo by Lalit Kumar)

The state government has cleared a Rs 2,000-crore ropeway project to connect ISBT with Mall Road and Shimla’s Ridge. The 2.5-km ropeway will be built in PPP mode.

The government has also cleared a multi-storey parking project near the Tourist Information Centre (TIC), near Shimla’s entry point close to the new ISBT.

The Rs 10 crore parking project, to be funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB), will de-congest Shimla and provide much-needed parking for tourist vehicles.

Additional Chief Secretary (Tourism)-cum -CM’s Principal Secretary V C Pharka told The Indian Express that the parking project will be launched soon. The project will accommodate 700 vehicles and the site has already been finalised.

Ghaziabad-based Usha Breco Limited (UBL), which is part of the Usha Martin group company, has bagged the ropeway project, expected to provide value addition to mountain tourism in northern India. The company, said Director (Tourism) Mohan Chauhan, is already executing passenger ropeway/cableways projects in some states including Gujarat.

The company is expected to get 36 months’ time to commission the project on a fast track mode. The project will generate revenue of Rs 10 crore to Shimla Municipal Corporation, beside generating employment for locals.

In the next few months, Jagson International Company’s Jakhu ropeway project — which had run into legal complications and environmental problems — will also become operational, tourism officials said.

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