The Indian Air Force rescued 48 people stuck mid-air after cable cars collided at the Trikut hills ropeway in Jharkhand's Deoghar district in which three people died and several were injured on Sunday.
Two Indian Air Force helicopters winched up people. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) assistant commandant Vinay Kumar Singh, who is at the spot, said that water and food was provided to the trapped people with the help of drones.
Operations are underway by #IAF to rescue stranded tourists and passengers on #Jharkhand ropeway at Trikut hill near Deoghar.
Nineteen tourists have been rescued till now by #IAF Mi17 V5 & Cheetah helicopters with Garud Commandos. #HarKaamDeshKeNaam pic.twitter.com/gYrH1zIkTl
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) April 11, 2022
The incident appears to have been caused due to a technical problem, an official said.
The ropeway manager and other employees, staffed by a private company are reported to have fled after the incident.
Teams of the NDRF and ITBP were also sent to the spot for the rescue operation, Deoghar Deputy Commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri said
Godda MP Nishikant Dubey said that he had informed Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Jharkhand Chief Secretary Sukhdeo Singh and requested for deployment of NDRF teams.
"I thank the Union Home Minister for taking cognisance of the matter immediately," he said.
Jharkhand Tourism says that the Trikut ropeway, close to the Baba Baidyanath Temple, is India's highest vertical ropeway.
The ropeway, situated around 20 km from Baba Baidyanath Temple, is over 750 metres long, while the hill is 392-metres-high. There are 25 carriages in the ropeway with seating for four people in each.
Jharkhand BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Deepak Prakash on Tuesday said that the 'negligence' of the state government is responsible for the cable-car mishap.
Speaking to ANI, Prakash said that the Government of Jharkhand, the Art Culture Department and the administrative officers are completely "guilty" for all the people who faced the trouble in the ropeway collision
He said that the maintenance of the ropeway was not taken care of from the last two years and the procedure which should have been followed for the operation of the ropeway was not being done.
"The people who were operating should have been controlled, the rules should have been strictly followed, but the state government did not pay any attention to all these things, the result came in the form of an accident," he stated.
