Overloading, extending ride hours and violating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) made Asia’s highest cable car, Gondola, vulnerable to frequent faults in Baramulla’s tourist hotspot, Gulmarg. The cable car saw a major six-hour-long fault, leaving 300 tourists stuck mid-air in cabins on May 25.

Against the approved upper limit of 4000 persons taking the ride for the first phase in a day, the J&K Cable Car Corporation, which runs the gondola, has started allowing 7,000 to 8000 tourists to take the ride this year, officials said. The second phase, which has a carrying capacity of 1500 persons with 33 cabins only, had started carrying 3000 tourists on a ride. 

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On May 25, around 3000 tourists had taken a ride for the first phase up to 1 p.m., when it developed a snag. Another batch of almost 3000 could not take the joy ride because of the exigency, which saw cabins dangling in mid-air and rescuers using ropes and ladders to bring down panicked and stranded persons. 

Set up in 1998, Gondola has two phases of rides: one from Gulmarg to Kongdoori (10 minutes ride) and another from Kongdoori to Apharwat (12 minutes ride), with the highest point located at an altitude of 4,390 metres (14,403 feet). Official sources said the first phase has 63 cabins, with each cabin having a carrying capacity of six persons.

Official sources said if the tourists got stuck in the second phase, “rescue operation was almost impossible, given the terrain and altitude”.

Besides overloading, the cable car also extended the riding hours by four additional hours this year. Official sources said the cable car would run by 9 a.m. up to 8:30 p.m. last year. However, under the extended timing this year, the ride would start by 7:30 a.m. and close by 8:30 p.m. Officials said running the cable car after sunset “is against the SOPs laid in 1998 for Gondola in Gulmarg”.

“The earlier maintenance routine suggested that the cable car should rest on Monday every week for technicians to take a look. However, the maintenance has been shifted to night hours and Monday too was included to ferry tourists,” they added.

At present, there are six stations for the cable car and an open-air chair lift in Gulmarg. However, these stations are not manned by mandatory technical staff, which would include electrical and mechanical engineers, another official said.

The Corporation has also failed to fill the technical posts that fall vacant after 2012, “significantly decreasing the technical staff”, the backbone of Gondola. The staff strength in the electrical department has fallen to three from eight this year.

Meanwhile, the cable car corporation remains indecisive about reopening it for tourists. “No date has been fixed for reopening the facility. Refunds for tourists who had booked tickets between May 25 and June 3 will start being processed from Monday,” said Syed Qamar Sajjad, Managing Director, Gulmarg Gondola.

The cable car charges ₹810 per person for the first phase and ₹1010 for the second. Around one million tourists took the Gondola ride in 2024, which means 2739 persons per day on average. The year saw a revenue generation of ₹108 crores.