Longest river ropeway project in India completes one year
The iconic construction marvel and the longest river passenger ropeway with supporting towers deep inside the mighty Brahmaputra River has completed its one year of operation recently. The construction work on the project was started and taken forward during the time of pandemic, with around 10 engineers and 40+ skilled laborers. The company during the completion of the project faced a great deal of challenges in transportation of heavy materials (weighing close to 25-40 tonnes) across the turbulent river. One of the supporting towers weighing close to 50 tonnes stands tall on the famous tourist site- Umananda island, it is the smallest inhabited river island.
Elaborating upon the public’s response received towards the ropeway project, Mr. Aditya Chamaria, Managing Director, Damodar Ropeway and Infra Limited said, “The ropeway project ever since its operations has received 50,000 visitors in one year, and the daily visitor population nowadays is going close to 700. People commuting daily from the North to South end of the city are heavily relying on this environment friendly mode of transportation. Guwahati being an entry point to North-East India, is a busy tourist destination throughout the year, and ever since restrictions have been lifted the city has been witnessing a good influx of travellers.”
The ropeway project has been constructed and maintained through a Joint Venture Company with the technical and financial partner as Damodar Ropeways and Infra Limited (DRIL). DRIL has been amongst Asia’s most experienced ropeway & infrastructure businesses since 1974. DRIL specializes in building Passenger Ropeways, Material Ropeways and Ski-Lifts as well as bulk material handling plants. The two supporting towers inside the river bed are 9m in diameter, and with depth up to 45m.
The structure and design of the ropeway project is approved by the IIT Guwahati’ Department of Civil Engineering. DRIL’s engineering team has also included one of the safest and never before utilized features in their ropeway project called self-propelled rescue car, which is beneficial for conducting rescue operations in emergency situations. The 30+1cabin capacity project has professionals monitoring the rides every time with the help of walkie-talkie devices.
