SRINAGAR: The authorities have launched an investigation into the technical glitch in the cable car system in the Gulmarg ski resort in Jammu and Kashmir that left 320 tourists stranded mid-air for nearly eight hours on Monday. The cable car service will remain shut for a week.
State tourism director Syed Qamar Sajad said the government had two options when the gearbox of the system developed snag. “Either we had to repair it on spot or replace it.
We had a spare available, but it would have taken us 12 to 24 hours to replace it. We decided that we will proceed with the rescue operation to rescue the tourists stranded on cable cars,” he said.
He announced that the technical glitch would be probed. “The engineering team and experts will put their heads together to decide whether we will go for a change of gear box and what was the reason for this technical snag,” he said.
A large-scale rescue operation was immediately launched jointly by Jammu and Kashmir Police, the Army, other Central agencies and the Cable Car Corporation. The rescue teams climbed difficult terrain and used specialised equipment to reach stranded gondolas.