Two dead, 48 stuck in cable cars on ropeway in Jharkhand for last several hours, rescue on

The ropeway is situated around 20 km from the famous Baba Baidyanath temple in Deoghar district.

At least two people are dead and 48 are said to be stuck in 12 cable cars of a ropeway at Trikut hills in Deoghar district of Jharkhand. Deoghar is famous for the Baba Baidyanath (lord Shiva) temple where thousands of people offer prayer every day.

The rescue operation has been under way for the last 20 hours to save those stuck inside the 12 cables of the ropeway. Four people can be accommodated in a cable car, district officials said on Monday.

The incident appeared to have occurred on April 10 due to some technical snag resulting in midair collision of cable cars.

The ropeway manager and other employees fled the spot after the incident happened, local journalists told The Hindu.

The ropeway is situated around 20 km from the Baba Baidyanath temple. It is around 766 metres long and has 25 cable cars. The Trikut hills on which the ropeway is operational is 392 metres high.

The Jharkhand tourism department says that Trikut hills ropeway is India’s highest vertical ropeway.

“The real cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained”, said an official of the Jharkhand government preferring anonymity.