Funicular trolley needs more safety

Nashik: The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has suggested some improvements to enhance the safety of pilgrims before the commercial operations of funicular trolley to ferry devotees to and from the Saptashrungi Devi hilltop temple kicks off.
A team of NDRF along with district collector Radhakrishnan B and Nashik superintendent of police Sanjay Darade visited Saptashrungi on Tuesday to inspect the operations of the funicular trolley, the first of its kind in the state.
“The NDRF team has suggested some improvements in the functioning of the trolleys for the safety of the devotees who wish to travel by it. The agency will submit a report to us within the next 48 hours, recommending the additional improvements that need to done. After incorporating them, the commercial operations of the funicular trolley will kick off," said the district collector.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is likely to inaugurate the facility.
The Saptashrungi Gadh is located in the East-West range of the Sahyadri mountain. It is one of the most frequented religious sites for pilgrims coming from neighbouring states such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
The project to build the funicular trolley at Saptashrungi Devi hilltop temple, about 80 km from Nashik city, was sanctioned by the state government way back in 2010.
The state public works department has implemented the project with the help of private parties.
There are two trolleys — one ascends and the other one descends — from the hilltop. Each of the trollies has a capacity to accommodate 60 devotees.
Once the facility becomes operational, the devotees could skip climbing 550 stairs to reach the ancient shrine. The devotees can reach the temple located at 1,402.08m above the sea level and a distance of about 100m from the foothills in just two to three minutes.
The trolley will run on a 1.20m wide railway track. It will have an 80m passing loop so that two trolleys travelling in the opposite direction can pass each other. The PWD officials said that a private operator would operate the trolley under Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model.
“The devotees availing the facility would be charged and the tariff would be announced soon,” added the official.
PWD officials said that system has foolproof safety measures and passengers may get down and walk along the track to climb the hill in case of any emergency.
The system is used worldwide, particularly in countries such as Switzerland, France, Sweden and Italy. In India, it was first used at Palani in Tamil Nadu in 1971.