Suspended cable car: Gul Dhok Damtor residents angry at service inconvenience

Tehsil Nazim says service will not resume till its owners secure worthiness certificate, implement safety measures

ABBOTTABAD: Residents of eight different areas situated across River Daur are angry and concerned over the suspension of a cable car service between Gul Dhok Damtor and Murree Road over the river.

They have demanded that the service be resumed.

The cable car had been suspended indefinitely by the local administration last week after it broke down midway whilst transporting around a dozen kids who were heading to school.

Speaking to The Express Tribune on Wednesday, Nadeem Khan, a resident of village Chahnr, explained that over 40,000 people of Gal Dhok, Chahanr, Seriyan, Bagarmar, Jaswal, Bokray and Sidrah , had no direct means of reaching Murree Road other than a dangerous crossing of River Daur.

However, in the early seventies, the government built a makeshift bridge which allowed the residents, especially school children, to cross the river.

However, later according to another villager, the bridge eventually broke away at various places and was virtually unusable. Despite several requests to elected MPAs from the constituency, the derelict bridge was not repaired. As a result, several commuters sustained injuries and even fell into the river while using it.

Wazir Muhammad, another villager from Gal Dhok lamented that since there was no concrete bridge, residents of surrounding areas had no other option other than to travel by jeeps which ferries them across the river and across unpaved roads up the mountain to the villages.

This mode of transportation is quite perilous, especially at the time when the river is in high flood.

Recognising the need for a transport service, a private investor had two years ago set up the cable car service across the river.

“There are at least 250 to 300 school children alone who use this service to reach Murree Road before travelling onwards to Abbottabad city,” said Basit, another resident, adding that the elderly people and women also benefitted from the service which costs only Rs10 for one sided travel.

The elevated makeshift cable car, called “Paharon ke shehzadi” (Princess of the mountains) by the locals, resembles the load carrying section of a hooded Suzuki pick up van. It is attached to metal cables and a pulley and is operated by an engine-driven motor.

The cable wire covers a span of about 650 meters and it operates on the river at a height of 10,000 feet with perennial flow of the gushing waters of the river beneath, providing a breathtaking and panoramic view of the surrounding valley.

The service also serves picnickers and tourists who cannot afford the time and money to go to Ayubia in a jeep.

However, when the pulley of the service malfunctioned last week, it left a dozen school children dangling precariously in mid-air several thousand feet above the raging waters for nearly two hours.

The service was suspended indefinitely and a case of negligence against the owner was registered on the orders of Tehsil Nazim Sardar Shujah Ahmed.

The nazim, when contacted, confirmed that the cable car service remains suspended on his orders as the owners have failed to secure a technical worthiness certificate for their cab.

Ahmed pointed out that this was the second time that the cable car had malfunctioned while carrying passengers. He said that unless the owners installed fail-safe measures and convince the local administration that it was safe to carry passengers, permission to restore services will not be granted.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2016.