Skip to main content

300 Tourists Rescued After Gulmarg Gondola Technical Issue Sparks Panic

What began as a scenic cable car ride over the snow-covered peaks of Jammu and Kashmir's Gulmarg turned into a terrifying ordeal for nearly 300 tourists on Sunday after the famed Gulmarg Gondola service suffered a sudden technical breakdown, leaving visitors stranded mid-air for hours.

A massive multi-agency rescue operation involving the Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police, paramilitary forces and Civil Defence teams was launched immediately to evacuate tourists trapped inside multiple chair cars suspended above the mountainous terrain.

Officials said the technical snag occurred around 1 pm, disrupting operations in the first phase of the Gulmarg Gondola service in north Kashmir's premier tourist resort.

"A sudden technical fault hit the operations in the first phase of the Gulmarg cable car," a senior official of the Gulmarg Development Authority said.

The first phase of the Gondola runs from the Gulmarg bowl to Kangdori, while the second phase extends up to Apharwat Peak at an altitude of nearly 4,000 metres.

Visuals from the spot showed tourists stranded mid-air as rescue teams worked to safely bring them down amid growing panic and anxiety.

Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary was among the senior officials who rushed to the spot to supervise rescue operations.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah praised the rescue teams for the successful evacuation of all stranded tourists.

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said they were closely monitoring the situation and had directed all available resources to ensure the safe evacuation of tourists.

Authorities said the exact cause of the technical snag is yet to be ascertained.

The Gulmarg Gondola, regarded as Asia's highest cable car project, is one of Kashmir's biggest tourist attractions, offering panoramic views of snow-clad Himalayan peaks at elevations exceeding 13,000 feet.



from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/cahqNxs
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PM Modi To Reschedule 3-Nation Europe Visit As Tensions With Pakistan Soar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put his three-nation Europe visit on hold as tensions between India and Pakistan have surged in the wake of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in which 26 civilians were killed by Pak-linked terrorists in a religiously-motivated terror attack. India responded on Wednesday with precision missile strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. PM Modi, who is closely-monitoring the situation, has reportedly asked for his visit to Croatia, Norway, and the Netherlands, which was due next week, to be rescheduled. As per his original schedule Prime Minister Modi was to commence his official visit to the three nations on May 13. He was also going to participate in the India-Nordic Summit in Oslo on May 15 and 16. All three countries have been informed about the change in PM Modi's schedule. They have also been appraised about the current situation between India and Pakistan. Last month too, on the day of the Pahalga...
Post a Comment
Read more

After Nitish Kumar's 'Praise', BJP Says Doors Closed For Him

The opposition BJP in Bihar on Thursday said that its doors were "closed" for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who dumped the saffron party a year ago, stripping it of power in the state. State BJP President Samrat Choudhary made the averment to this effect in reply to queries from journalists about the Janata Dal United leader's address to the convocation ceremony of Mahatma Gandhi Central University at Motihari. Speaking in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu and Governor Rajendra Arlekar, Mr Kumar had freely spoken of the tussle he had with the then Congress government at the Centre for getting a university approved for Motihari, where Mahatma Gandhi had launched the Champaran Satyagraha. Without mentioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi by name, Mr Kumar acknowledged that the project saw the light of the day only after a change of guard "in 2014" as the UPA government "initially refused and after much persuasion agreed in principle but did not move for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Delhi Air On Brink Of Turning "Severe", Most Polluted In India

Delhi's air quality was on the brink of the 'severe' category on Sunday with an overall AQI reading of 382 - the worst recorded in the country for the day. Fifteen monitoring stations of the city recorded air quality levels in the 'severe' zone, having AQI readings over 400, data showed. The city also recorded its lowest nighttime temperature so far, as thick smog and haze shrouded it in a dense cover during the morning and evening hours. The minimum temperature recorded on Sunday was 16.5 degrees Celsius, 1.2 degrees above normal, according to the weather department. The national capital's 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI), recorded at 4 pm every day, stood at 382, worsening from 316 the previous day. The locations where air pollution levels reached the 'severe' zone are Anand Vihar, Ashok Vihar, Bawana, Dwarka, Jahangirpuri, Mundka, NSIT Dwarka, Najafgarh, Nehru Nagar, Okhla Phase 2, Patparganj, Punjabi Bagh, Rohini, Wazirpur and Vivek Vihar...
Post a Comment
Read more