Gondola Ride Rescue: Over 250 stranded tourists were rescued from Gulmarg’s Affarwat area in an overnight rescue operation by J&K Police and Gondola staff. These tourists got stuck due to technical fault in the Gondola ride and could not take the tourists back to Gulmarg base. According to officials of the Gulmarg Development Authority, the tourists went up to Gondola Phase II in Afravat Gulmarg, which is situated at an altitude of 13,058 feet in the snow-capped mountains. Gondola Ride is a cable car project in Gulmarg.
The gondola was carrying tourists back normally, but at around 6.15 am, an electrical fault in the gondola caused a complete shutdown of the system. Because of which more than 250 tourists got stuck amidst the cold at an altitude of 13,058 feet. Due to this, the Jammu and Kashmir Police had to start a rescue operation in the area.
Rescue operation lasted for 5 hours
As soon as the information was received, the rescue team of Gulmarg Police Station swung into action with the help of the employees of Gondola Car Corporation. On the night of June 8, after a lot of effort, the stranded tourists were rescued. All the tourists were safely brought back to Gulmarg situated at an altitude of 8000 feet by Gondola Ride and all the people were rescued after five hours of operation.
Gondola cable car service will be restored soon
Gondola officials said that in the meantime electrical and mechanical engineers are working on the fault and it is expected that the work of the Gondola cable car will be restored by today (June 9) evening. Asia’s largest and tallest and the world’s second largest and second tallest cable car project, Gulmarg Gondola is a top tourist attraction in Gulmarg. The gondola can ferry 6 people at a time and 750 people per hour.
The Gondola in Gulmarg consists of two stages. The first stage is for the journey to Kongdori at an altitude of 8,530 feet and the second stage is for the journey to Afarwat at an altitude of 12,293 feet. The record-breaking year for tourism in Kashmir was 2022, when an astonishing 26.73 lakh people visited. So far this year, 8.51 lakh tourists have taken the Gondola.
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