VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, April 13: The Trikut hills ropeway accident in Deoghar has raised an array of concerns about whether the company operating the ropeway regularly and seriously carried out rehearsals of the rescue operation. Kolkata-based Damodar Ropeways and Infra Ltd (1974) installed the ropeway in 2009 and has been operating it.
As per the rule book rehearsal of the rescue operation will have to be carried in every three months. It has to be done to ensure that in case of an accident people inside the cable cars are rescued.
The last such rehearsal was carried out sometime after the lockdown was withdrawn and public places were opened. But many employees and local residents claimed that rehearsals of the rescue operation are not conducted at a regular interval.
“It is written here that a mock drill will have to be done every three months. But it is not so. The last drill was held after the lockdown was lifted,” said one of the employees.
The company has hired around 32 staff to operate the ropeway and according to the rulebook they have to be taught and trained about the basics of rescue operations. But they can actually rescue people, not above 15 meters, above the ground.
“They use safety belts. But they can’t scale beyond a point. In a situation like this can you expect them to act as a commando. Rehearsal of rescue operation has been the most neglected part here,” said another.
There is no idea of how parameters of rehearsal of rescue operation have been defined in the contract signed between the tourism department and the company.
The company’s general manager (commercial), Mahesh Mohata rather remained evasive on this issue. But he claimed mock drills are conducted within the stipulated time. “We can carry and actually carried rescue operation up to 700 meters of the length from the base station. We rescued 10 persons through vertical landing,” he said. Trikut ropeway roughly covers a distance of 1771 meters.
Asked whether the local administration and police are roped in while organizing mock drills he said that these are done at the company level.
“No. We don’t involve and inform local police and administration. Maintenance work is part of the daily routine. There is daily quarterly, half-yearly and annual maintenance besides tri-monthly rescue operation exercise,” he said.
