PRADEEP BHANDARI /Jyotirmath
The Jyotirmath-Auli ropeway has yet to resume operating three years after its functioning was stopped. While the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) has suffered a loss of crores of rupees due to this, the local tourism business has also been affected negatively due to the ropeway not functioning.
The operation of the Auli ropeway was stopped in 2023 when land subsidence hit Jyotirmath. Since then, the authorities have conducted surveys for resuming operation of the ropeway but the status remains unclear so far.
During the Yatra season, a number of those travelling to or returning from Badrinath used to take the ropeway to Auli. However, such tourists have stopped coming here with the ropeway not functioning anymore. The locals involved in the tourism business have from time to time demanded resumption of the ropeway. Local tourism businessmen Ajay Bhatt, Anil Saklani and Nagendra Saklani said that the tourism business here has suffered considerably due to the stop of the ropeway operation. A technical team had arrived here regarding the ropeway but no concrete progress has been seen in the matter so far. The ropeway manager Rajendra Prasad Dimri said that the discontinuation of the ropeway operations has caused a loss of about Rs 10 crore so far. Meanwhile, questions are being raised about the reasons for the continued delay in resumption of the ropeway operations at a time when the State government has also announced the Auli winter carnival as one of its major events during the current financial year.
