Seven killed in Gulmarg as cable car falls; probe on

Srinagar: Seven people, including four of a family from Delhi, were killed and two persons were injured on Sunday after a ropeway car plummeted to the ground in Kashmir’s resort town of Gulmarg. Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has ordered an inquiry into the mishap and announced ex-gratia relief of Rs 5 lakh each for the families of those killed.

Witnesses said that a cable car came crashing down from a height of at least 100 feet after derailing from a pulley. Officials said that the mishap occurred after a pine tree fell due to strong winds, snapped the cables of the ropeway, and brought one of the cable cars crashing to the ground. The victims include a couple from Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh — Jayat Andraskar and Manisha Andraskar — and their daughters Anaga Jayant and Anushka Jayant. The family’s local guide, Mukhtar Ahmed, a resident of Chountpathri Babareshi in Gulmarg, was also killed. Two others who lost their lives in the mishap are Jahangir Ahmad Khanday, also a guide, and Farooq Ahmad Chopan. The injured were identified as Ajaz Ahmed Ganie and Tariq Ahmad Katariya.

“Feeling peaceful with Manisha Andraskar,” was the last message that friends of Delhi resident Jayant Andraskar saw on his Facebook page before tragedy struck.

One of his daughters was a Class 1 student while the other was in playschool, according to one of their relatives, Sourabh. The couple had gone to Kashmir on June 22, he said. “The last time we talked, they spoke about Kashmir,” Sourabh said.

The Gulmarg Gondola (ropeway), built by French firm Pomagalski in 1998, ferries about 600 people an hour to and from the Kongdoori Mountain. It is the first deadly mishap to strike the ropeway service.

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah expressed his condolences in a series of tweets, and questioned why the service was not shut down during high winds as a precautionary measure.

He tweeted, “If this is what happened it begs the question as to why the cable car operations weren’t suspended in high winds. That’s a laid down SOP”.

The present incumbent Mehbooba Mufti has expressed grief and shock over the “tragic accident” and said that she was herself monitoring the rescue operations. She announced ex gratia relief of Rs. five lakh in favour of next of kin of those killed. She also directed conducting of a high level inquiry to know of the causes or lapses, if any, that led to the accident.