Bolivian rope cars being studied as alternative mode of transport in TN

Sources said CMRL recently led a delegation of representatives from different stakeholders such as CMDA, traffic police officials to Bolivia to do a feasibility study introducing rope cars, which is a successful model for urban transport in Bolivia. Said to be the world’s first urban transit network to use cable cars as the primary mode of transportation, it has been built and managed by Doppelmayr Garaventa Group in Bolivia. The country has erected eight lines differentiated by colour just like Chennai Metro to connect different destinations. 

An official who was part of the delegation told DT Next that it could be an alternative as the cost of the project would be a tenth of Metro Rail. “It is very smooth, no driver, no smoke and no wait. There is a rope car for every minute to different destinations and one just has to get the ticket and move to the podium. It is just how our Metro Rail or EMU functions, but rope car will be managed by an integrated system,” said the official.

 When contacted, a senior CMRL officer said, “A systems director of CMRL is member of the delegation that visited Bolivia as part of the World Bank funded study tour. The Union Urban Development Ministry commissioned the tour. We will study the feasibility of implementing small axle load trains, a smaller version of the Metro trains operated in the city now in Tamil Nadu. The feasibility study will be for cities like Coimbatore where Metro Rail projects have been proposed.” However, he emphasised that Metro projects would continue unhindered in the city and the feasibility would only be for other cities. 

There are various factors such as nature of terrain and people density that need to be considered for the feasibility of implementing such a transport system here since Bolivia is a hilly region with less population. But since it is cost-effective compared to other transport modes, authorities may consider it for the state in future.