Rajgir: Bihar's highest revenue earning tourist destination is a story of neglect (original) (raw)

The Rajgir ropeway transports a traveller at over 1,000-feet height from the ground. Attached to thick iron ropes, most of the 101 chairs are exposed to the beating of the weather and have to marks of rust - a clear indication of the weakening of the iron frame of the chairlifts.

Rajgir ropeway transports a traveller at over 1,000-feet height from the ground.

Every public facility and infrastructure need maintenance. If maintenance is not done properly, disaster is bound to strike. Majerhat bridge in Kolkata showcased the results of neglect. Mumbai witnessed painfully loss of a neglected foot-over bridge and lives of those who contributed to the famed spirit of the city. In Bihar, an international tourist destination of Rajgir has been facing similar neglect by the administration and state government.

Rajgir houses the famous Buddhist monument called Vishwa Shanti Stupa (Pagoda of Universal Peace). Thousands of tourists and Buddhist pilgrims visit Rajgir every year. The heavy tourist inflow has made Rajgir the highest revenue earning site for the Bihar government. But a tour of the Vishwa Shanti Stupa at Rajgir is fraught with life-threatening risk to the travellers.

The Vishwa Shanti Stupa is situated on the Ratnagiri Hills. A tourist has to undertake a 12-15 minute journey on a chairlift ropeway to reach Vishwa Shanti Stupa at Rajgir. There is another way to reach the Vishwa Shanti Stupa. But that route is difficult and has flights passing through a difficult trek.

The ropeway at Rajgir was gifted by the famous Japanese Buddhist monk and traveller Fuji Guruji in the 1960s. Legendary socialist leader and freedom fighter Jai Prakash Narayan was the first person to take a ropeway ride. It is the oldest ropeway in India.

The Rajgir ropeway transports a traveller at over 1,000-feet height from the ground. Attached to thick iron ropes, most of the 101 chairs are exposed to the beating of the weather and have to marks of rust - a clear indication of the weakening of the iron frame of the chairlifts.

A traveller, Gaurav Raj told Indiatoday.in that "the chairs have lively colours but any traveller would tell that these are risky. The chairlifts don't stop during the over 1,000-feet-altitude ride and move in the rotation as these are not detachable chairs.

A rider had to be quick enough to get down from the chair at the destination as the chairlifts don't stop. Children below eight years of age and senior citizens, who appear frail to the operators manning the ropeway, are not allowed to take a ride to the Ratnagiri hills."

There is no stand to rest one's feet, which keeps dangling from the chair. An iron rod runs across the front of the chairlift giving a false sense of safety to a rider. There is no belt to fasten, no gear to regulate the speed of the chairlift, which shakes abruptly as it approaches the tower.

When a tourist reaches on the other side, an attendant unlatches the iron stick and the rider needs to get off quickly lest the chairlift would take her on the round-trip. Gaurav Raj says, "Even an atheist would turn believer during those 12 minutes ride through the sky."

"At Rajgir, we heard that Dev Anand and Hema Malini shot for their film Johny Mera Naam on this ropeway. But that is unthinkable today," Gaurav Raj said.

Records show that the Nitish Kumar government is aware of the risk involved in a ropeway ride. The government had decided in 2010 to build a new ropeway at Rajgir to ferry tourists and pilgrims to and from the Vishwa Shanti Stupa. This came after the ropeway broke down in the middle of an international Buddhist conclave in February 2010.

An announcement was made for the construction of a new detachable gondola ropeway next year in 2011 on the occasion of 42nd anniversary of the Vishwa Shanti Stupa. Seven years down the line, the work has only begun.

The project was pending until 2017. The Bihar tourism department had said last year that the proposal had been sent to the Centre in 2009 but there were some issues related to forest conservation rules that delayed the work at Rajgir ropeway.

The area falls under the reserved forest category. The Bihar State Board for Wildlife cleared the project in 2012 while the approval from the National Board for Wildlife came in August 2014.

Interestingly, when Nitish Kumar government sent its proposal to the Centre, it was part of the NDA and there was a UPA government at the Centre. The proposal remained pending till 2014 when NDA government came into power at the Centre but Nitish Kumar had left NDA.

The work was expected to begin in 2015 but some administrative issues delayed its beginning. The project is being handled by RITES, which is a central government enterprise. It issued a notification in 2016 inviting bid for the construction of Rajgir ropeway. The work finally began only after Nitish Kumar got back into the NDA fold.

The ropeway project is already running behind schedule. The locals, however, expect that the ropeway would be completed in two years' time. Once complete, the new detachable ropeway at Rajgir's Vishwa Shanti Stupa will ferry 800 travellers a day in its 22 cabins in place of chairlifts with each trip taking only little over four minutes and with a better guarantee of safety.

The old ropeway will be accorded a heritage status like the Toy Train of Darjeeling. But for that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar needs to give a booster dose to the project and the people working on it.

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Published By:

Kritika Bansal

Published On:

Sep 5, 2018

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