The temple of Mata Vaishno Devi is a sacred place for Hindus. Every year lakhs of devotees come here for darshan. Due to this temple being located at a height, old people or infirm people have to face great difficulty. For them the journey is either expensive or difficult.
There was a demand for making a ropeway here for a long time.Government started the project of making ropeway at a cost of 250 crores. In the year 2022, about 91 lakh devotees reached to visit the mother. Most of these people reach here after a 12 kilometer long trek to reach the temple situated on the Trikuta hill.Devotees who cannot reach home on foot take the help of pittu or mules. It is also expensive, so not everyone can use it. It takes 1 day to cover a distance of 12 km on foot and come back. Now the ropeway will reduce this process to a few minutes. The ropeway will be 2.4 km long and for this RITES i.e. Railway India Technical and Economic Services has invited bids.
When this ropeway is ready, it will take just 6 minutes to reach Mata Darbar. Now it takes 5-6 hours. This project will take 3 years to complete. The ropeway will run from Tarakote base camp in Katra to Sanjhi Chhat near the temple. The rope-way gondola will be equipped with a cable car system. It is also called aerial rope-way. In this, a cabin on the wires moves from one place to another in the middle of the mountains. The gondola cable car has a double arrangement of wires.
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After the ropeway is built, the time of the devotees will be saved, but this option will be much cheaper than mule or helicopter. In the year 2018, PM Narendra Modi inaugurated a new road to reach the temple. Apart from this, Vande Bharat Express was also started between Delhi to Katra in the year 2020.