A family of four from Delhi and three local men were killed on Sunday when a gondola car cabin crashed hundreds of meters down to the ground after its cable snapped in Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir, police said.
The management of the company that operates the gondola cable car service blamed "an act of God" for the tragedy.
Riyaz Ahmad, General Manager of the project, told IANS that there was no violation of the standard operating procedure (SOP) on Sunday.
We don’t operate the gondola during high velocity winds and there is an inbuilt safety mechanism in the system that automatically stops the operation whenever there are gusty winds. What happened yesterday was a great misfortune because of an act of God.
The deceased were identified as Jayant Anderaskar, his wife Manisha and their daughters Anagha and Jhanvi. They were from Shalimar Bagh in Delhi. The other three victims were identified as Mukhtar Ahmed Ganie, Javed Ahmed Khandey and Farooq Ahmed.
The incident prompted the Jammu and Kashmir government to order a high-level inquiry.
A tree, uprooted by strong winds, fell on the ropeway of Gulmarg gondola severing the lines and plummeting the cable car to the ground, a police official said.
The police said they rescued around 150 people stranded due to the snapping of the cable car ropeway in north Kashmir's Baramulla district.
Earlier, a police officer was quoted as saying:
A couple and two children were among the dead. Rescue efforts are on to save people trapped in other cars of the gondola cable car project.Police Officer
The dead were identified as Jayant Anderaskar, his wife Manisha and their daughters Anagha and Jhanvi. They were reported to be from Shalimar Bagh in Delhi.
The other two victims were identified as Mukhtar Ahmed Ganie and Javed Ahmed Khandey, believed to be tourist guides.
Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah Express Condolences
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti ordered a high-level inquiry while expressed grief and shock over the deaths.
Mufti, who herself was monitoring the rescue operations, also announced ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased, an official spokesperson said.
He said the chief minister has asked the inquiry to probe the causes or lapses, if any, that led to the tragedy.
Meanwhile, former chief minister Omar Abdullah expressed condolences and wondered why the cable car operations were not suspended in high winds.
It was the first such disaster in the ropeway project which has 36 cabins and 18 towers and is a joint venture of the Jammu and Kashmir government and a French firm. It is hugely popular with tourists who flock to Gulmarg, a skiing hub.
World’s Second Highest Operating Cable Car
The two-stage Gulmarg cable car lift ferries people to a height of 13,780 feet above the sea level. It is the world's second highest operating cable car project with a cabin capacity of ferrying 600 people in one hour.
(With inputs from IANS and PTI)
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