Are urban ropeways a good bet for future?

The temple town of Varanasi — one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world — is synonymous with the vibrant yet chaotic narrow alleys, bustling markets, food, sight, and sound, all of which make for a sensory overload. A similar system in Mexico City currently around 24.75km in length spread across two lines serves around 135,000 people daily, especially in hilly underserved areas by conventional transport. Mi Teleférico in Bolivia — the world’s largest and highest cable car system joins the two cities of El Alto and La Paz and the contiguous urban area, and sees a daily ridership of 300,000 across 10 lines with one major line carrying more than 65,000 passengers daily. “The only viable alternative was to build an underground metro but given the historical and cultural importance of the city, the risks of digging up was avoided.” Another city-based official said that to reduce congestion, the traffic police and the municipality have already restricted vehicular movement in about 4km length of roads leading to the Vishwanath temple in recent years with increased pedestrianisation under Smart Cities Mission. So there is a need to develop a two to three-tiered crowd management system if the footfalls continue to increase.” A senior NHAI official said if the financials work out in Varanasi as planned, then the central government may push for such urban ropeway projects in densely built-up pockets across the country such as Chandni Chowk in New Delhi and the old-city area of Hyderabad among others.