The inability of the authorities to spot the danger posed by trees that had grown taller than the Gondola in Gulmarg led to the freak accident on June 25, sources said.
Seven persons were killed and two others injured as the cable car they were travelling in plummeted after a tree fell on the ropeway.
Height of trees an issue
Sources close to the three-member probe committee headed by Commissioner-Secretary, Power Development Department (PDD), Dheeraj Gupta, said the height of the quail and fir trees that line the first phase of the Gondola between Gulmarg and Kongdoori had long been posing a threat to the ropeway.
“One of the fir trees, 50 to 60 feet high, with false ground roots was swept away by the wind and it hit the ropeway. It caused the rope to sag, resulting in wobbling and swinging, which derailed the capsule,” a J&K Cable Car Corporation (JKCCC) official said.
“It’s wrong to say that the rope got cut as it can bear over one lakh metric tonnes of weight,” he added.
When the cable car system was inaugurated in 1998, the height of the trees was under permissible limits. But, in the past 19 years these trees grew in height by around 2 to 2.5 feet every year, becoming higher that the ropeway.
Need immediate trimming
Sources said there are around 60 to 70 trees that need immediate trimming. The fir tree that had hit the cable car was nearly 60 feet high, they said.
The JKCCC and the Gulmarg Development Authority (GDA) have been at loggerheads with the State Forest Department over the felling of the trees.
The sources said the treeline gaining height had been pointed out to the State Forest Department by the GDA, but it was not followed up by any action.
A senior JKCCC official said the wind does not pose any threat to the Gondola as hooters are in place. There is also a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) followed while giving clearance to each phase of the ropeway, the official added.
Sources said a team of French company Pomagalski had assessed the safety measures in the first phase in April and had issued a clearance certificate on its functioning.
The Gulmarg Gondola is in two phases.
The first phase between Gulmarg and Kongdoori covers a distance of 5 kms.
The second phase, between Kongdoori and Apharwat, is steeper at an altitude of 13400 feet. The tree which fell was in the first phase.
Report by July 10
Meanwhile, another French team has been invited to assess the damage caused by the accident and issue a fresh certificate to resume the functioning of the Gondola, which has been shut since the incident.
A three-member committee has also been set up to probe the incident. One of the committee members, Superintending Engineer (Mechanical) Vijay Raina, said, “We are inspecting the site again.”
He, however, refused to disclose more details. The committee is expected to submit its report by July 10.
