Almost six months after the foundation was laid for the much-anticipated ropeway at Nandi Hills, construction work has still not begun as the handover of land to the Tourism Department remains incomplete. The alignment for the ropeway project was recently approved by the Karnataka government so that the Tourism Department could work on obtaining a No Objection Certificate (NoC) from the Forest Department while also working on land transfer from other departments.
The 2.93 kilometre ropeway will have two terminals — one near the Nandi Hills Road and the other on top of Nandi Hills. The lower terminal is expected to come up on a 3 acre 20 guntas land parcel which falls under the district administration of Bengaluru Rural (Doddaballapur Taluk).
Along with the terminal, in land spaces which span over 4 acre and 10 guntas (which was falling under Chikkaballapur district administration), Dyanamicx Ropeway Private Limited, the Special Purpose Vehicle which has entered a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the Tourism Department, plans to set up amenities and a parking lot.
“The land has been handed over to the Tourism department, but some farmers from the nearby areas have filed cases in the Court against the sanction of Gomala land and gotten stay orders. However, the government is now prepared to file objections on the stay order to get the work going,” an official of the Tourism Department revealed.
Amenities inside ropeway building
According to sources, the complex will have parking for over 200 cars, 110 bikes, eight buses and tempo travellers along with a food court which can accommodate more than 184 people among other things. The ropeway building will also have a waiting capacity for 600 people.
With over 20 pillars expected to come up between the lower and upper terminals, the Department of Tourism has now applied for NoCs from the Forest Department for forest land on which the pillars will come up. “If there are stretches of private land in between, then we will ask the government to declare the approximately 10-metre stretch where the pillar passes, as no development zones,” the official explained.
Further, even though the maintenance of Nandi Hills at the top is taken care of by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) in agreement with the Department of Tourism and the Horticulture Department, the ownership of the land still lies with the Horticulture Department. The Tourism Department has now moved a proposal for land transfer to the Horticulture Department, sources revealed.
The monocable ropeway will be equipped with 50 semi-closed cabins which can accommodate six passengers each. Although the project was expected to conclude in a timeframe of two years initially, there might now be a slight delay, officials said.
