India's first Funicular Trolley to start in Maharashtra on March 4

Exactly eight years after it was sanctioned in January 2010, India's first Funicular Trolley is all set to be launched on March 4 for pilgrims who throng the famed Saptashrungi Devi hilltop temple here, a top official said.

The Funicular Trolley -- common in several international mountain resorts and villages in Switzerland, Russia and other places -- will zoom up the 1,400 metres tall Saptashrungi Hills in the picturesque north end of Western Ghats to the temple atop, said the Maharashtra Public Works Department Superintending Engineer in Nashik, R.R. Hande.

"It will have an elevation of almost 330 feet and will enable pilgrims to reach the top of the hill within three minutes. At present, it's a gruelling climb of 510 steps which can take anything between one and two hours, depending on the pilgrim's health and stamina," Hande told IANS. The trolley will travel at a 36 degree angle.

A Funicular Trolley



is a pair of vehicles pulled up a slope by a cable which loops over a pulley wheel at the upper end of a track. While one vehicle is ascending the other one is descending the track, and thus they are counterbalancing each other. The Funicular Trolley has been constructed by Suyog Gurbaxani Funicular Ropeways Pvt. Ltd., Thane, as a build-operate-transfer project in consultation with Promekhnizatse Consultants of Ukraine, according to PWD Deputy Engineer K.R. Kedar.

The entire project was tendered for Rs 31.50 crore in 2010, but the final cost estimates are awaited even as the state government and the Shri Saptashrungi Devi Nivanisini Trust, which manages the temple, await the launch.

Hande said the initial ticket will be Rs 80 for adults. For senior citizens above 75, physically handicapped and children below 12 the ticket would cost Rs 40. The temple attracts around four million pilgrims from all over India annually.