Construction of a rope-car service connecting Varanasi railway station to the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple is underway, with officials targeting a May 2026 opening. The project, costing Rs 800 crore, is expected to become India’s first urban rope-car corridor.
“We are planning to bring it into operation by May 2026. Currently, the work is going on,” Varanasi Divisional Commissioner S Rajalingam said.
The decision followed multiple visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who represents Varanasi in the Lok Sabha and has overseen a vast modernisation push in the ancient city.
“A sum of Rs 40,000 crore of the total Rs 60,000 crore has been dedicated towards infrastructure development of the city. The reason behind this plan (rope car) is that, in the past, 5,000 people a day were visiting the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple. But today it stands at about two lakh,” Rajalingam told PTI.
Varanasi, he added, now houses around 42 lakh people, and the rope car is expected to ease movement within its congested core.
Rajalingam hails from Kadayanallur, Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu, and took charge as the Divisional Commissioner of Varanasi in April 2025.
With the roads being narrow and areas becoming 'dense pockets', Metro rail project was not feasible to the city. Hence, it was decided to set up the rope car service, he said.
"It will be the first rope car service that will run on a 4-km stretch within the city. The travel time is expected to be around 15-20 minutes from the railway station to the Shri Kashi Vishwanath temple," he said.
"We are expecting to fix the ticket price per person at Rs 50 or Rs 100. Each Gandolas (aerial cable cars for transporting people) will carry about 10 people. We are planning to put about 148 Gandolas in the rope car service," he said.
"Once the rope car comes into operation, we expect 1 lakh people will be able to travel in it per day," he added.
Responding to a query, he said this year the district administration expects nearly 7 crore people to visit the city. In 2024, the footfall was 6.5 crore.
Rajalingam said there are also plans to enhance transportation by using the waterways. "We have taken up dredging works. We have also deployed eight community jetties along the waterways," he said.
To strengthen the inland waterways, Rajalingam said, the administration has also scaled up the use of boats on the river Ganga. "There were 600 boats operational in the past, but today we are operating about 2,000 boats to serve the public", he said.
The government was also keen on enhancing the public transport and now electric buses are being operated on the vital routes, he added.
