RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, April 18: The Jharkhand High Court today directed the state government to file an affidavit in Trikut Ropeway tragedy while hearing the PIL, lodged suo motu after the incident took place on April 10 last year.
The tragedy took place after a ropeway malfunction that resulted in trolleys colliding at the hills. Why the ropeway, run by Kolkata-based Damodar Ropeways and Infra Ltd, malfunctioned is a mystery?
The state governmernt coumsel placed a volunious report before the court today. A divsion bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjaya KUmar Mishra, however, told the government counsel to file a gist of the report by the next date i,e. May 16..
During the Trikut Ropeway tragedy, 46 hours of joint operation of Indian Air Force (IAF), Garud Commando and NDRF besides Jharkhand Police was required to rescue 60 tourists stranded in midair on the ropeway. Three tourists died in the incident. While one died instantly, two died during a rescue operation, which was the first of its kind in the country.
Earlier on December 9 last year, the High Court had directed the Jharkhand government to form a committee to probe Trikut ropeway tragedy and submit its report before the court.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan gave the direction after BIT Mesra and CIMFR submitted their report in this connection before the court. During its hearing in the matter on April 25 the high court had directed to bring the report of BIT, Mesra and CIMFR, Dhanbad on record.
The ropeway is on Trikut Mountain. The mountain is located on Deoghar-Dumka main road under Mohanpur police station area of Deoghar district.
Piyush Chitresh, who represented the state government in the court during the hearing, was not available for his comment.
