MMRDA to revive Matheran cable car project

For thousands of tourists planning a mini vacation to Matheran, there is some good news. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) plans to revive its six-year-old proposal to construct a funicular railway track (cable car) to the hill station with the Central Railways (CR) facing difficulties to operate its toy train between Aman Lodge and Matheran.

The funicular railway track as proposed in 2010, will start from Dudhani village near Panvel and will go up to Maillot spring point, which is near Sunset point in Matheran.

Confirming the news, a senior MMRDA official said, “With the CR facing difficulties with operating its toy train we are planning to revive our earlier proposed funicular railway project. Also, we are in touch with the state tourism department to know what are the potential plans for Matheran they are planning, which are in its initial stages as of now.”

In the month of May there were back-to-back derailment of coaches of the famous toy train, which subsequently led the CR to terminate the services completely.

However, the CR has now claimed that commissioner of railway safety is in the process of a safety trial check and a decision on the commencement of the toy train will be taken later.

The proposed Rs 100 crore funicular railway will be a 15-minute ride with two rakes with capacity of 60 passengers each would be guided by cables along the tracks.

Currently, the service is available in major European countries, USA and Japan. In India, Tamil Nadu has its own funicular railway as well.

The MMRDA had earlier dropped the plan due to non-feasibility, but now it expects that with CR not able to operate the toy train, this railway will give boost to tourism and also get its expected ridership.

“Like the toy train, the funicular railway can be used for transportation of goods and services during non-peak hours which will help the hoteliers conducting their business in Matheran,” added the MMRDA official.

Earlier in May, suspension of toy trains had irked the hoteliers and residents of Matheran to meet and present their qualms to railway minister, Suresh Prabhu. They requested him to tackle the problems they had to face due to the dearth of tourists’ inflow in the hill station caused by the termination of the toy train services.