Mumbai: Work for the Neral-Matheran (4.7 km) ropeway will start in December, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has confirmed. The total cost of this proposed ropeway is Rs 150 crore. Once operational, the ropeway will ferry tourists from Bhutavili village, Bhivpuri, Neral to Matheran in 20 minutes. Once the work starts in December, it will take approximately two years for the ropeway to be functional. Pravin Darade, additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, made the announcement. The ropeway will have the capacity to carry 1,000 people per hour, per trip, claim MMRDA authorities.
“The DPR (Detailed Project Report) prepared by the Tata Realty and Infrastructure Limited has been submitted and so now we are commencing the work by December,” said Mr Darade.
According to reports, the authority had missed a date earlier wherein the work was supposed to start by June.
The ropeway will have 25-30 cars made of glass and transparent flooring. The proposed system will have three stations and 18 ropeway towers along the route.
The ropeway is expected to improve the tourism in Matheran, which was affected by repeated derailments of the toy train in the past one year.
The project was in consideration since 2010. It received approval from the Public Works Department (PWD) in 2013. Matheran Ropeway Private Limited (MRPL), a private firm, has been awarded the contract to execute the proposal.
Similarly, in order to boost tourism in Sanjay Gandhi National Park and improve connectivity between Borivali and Thane, the state has planned to build an eight-km-long ‘urban ropeway’ that would go from over SGNP and allow one to have a bird’s-eye view of the surroundings.
