Over nine lakh tourists enjoyed trips of Gulmarg Gondola, out of Asia’s highest aerial tramways located in north Kashmir, November this year. According to officials, the number of tourists at the tramway in deep Himalayas near the Line of Control (LoC) have gone up by about 20%.
The administration is hopeful that the number would cross 10 lakh by the end of this year, making it the first time the ropeway would attract such numbers since its opening in 1998.
Raja Yaqoob, tourism director and managing director, J&K Cable Car Corporation, which runs the tramway expressed confidence over the number crossing 10 lakh by the end of the year.
Gulmarg (the meadow of flowers), in the Pir Panjal mountain range in the western Himalayas, is a cup-shaped valley with virgin peaks, dry curry-powder snow and vast meadows that attract majority of the tourists visiting the valley. The Gulmarg Gondola is the flagship attraction of Kashmir tourism, and possibly India’s most popular ropeway at a height of 13,500 ft, making it Asia’s highest operating cable car.
The Gondola has two phases – first phase takes a person to Kongdori bowl at a height of 2,650 m (8,694 ft) and the second phase soars to sky-touching Apharwat, at 3,980 m (13,058 ft). The phases cost ₹740 and ₹950 per person, respectively. The ropeway has 108 cabins, 18 towers and an aerial distance of 5km..
Officials said that the corporation has enhanced the tourist experience, by improving the ticket issuing system, undertaking safety tests and an overhaul of the second phase with latest technology.
“The corporation is committed to improve tourist experience by giving them an easy, hassle free and safe ride,” Yaqoob said.
The Gulmarg Gondola project was conceived in 1988, a year before insurgency broke out in Kashmir. The work resumed in the year 1998 for completion of the phase one of the project, from Gulmarg to Kongdori. It was thrown open to public in May in the same year.
After the region saw a fast decline in violence around 2005, the second phase of the project, from Kongdori to Apharwat Mountain at a height of 13,500 feet, was thrown open for public,
Yaqoob assured the tourists of even better facilities and appealed to them to book tickets online. In 2022, Kashmir saw the highest-ever arrival of tourists at 26.73 lakh. Of these, 15.42 lakh visited Gulmarg. This year, officials hint that the number is much higher.
The tramway eared an annual revenue of ₹100 crore in 2022-23, the highest-ever.
