Darjeeling: Tourists will have to give the ropeway in Darjeeling a miss this season.

The licence for operating the rides has expired and a fresh tender is yet to be issued.

The Darjeeling Rangeet Valley Ropeway is a joint venture between the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation and the Conveyor and Ropeway Services Pvt Ltd. The corporation directed the agency operating the ropeway to stop commercial operations from Sunday, stating that its 20-year lease period had expired.

The ropeway company on its part is planning to appeal in court.

The forest department and the agency are locked in a battle over the "interpretation" of the 20-year lease period. The forest department is of the opinion that the tenure expired on March 31, 2018, and hence the company is not entitled to continue with the services.

The firm, however, differs with the forest department's opinion. "We are given a lease to run the ropeway commercially for a period of 20 years so that we could recover our investment made in 1998. However, the ropeway has been commercially operated only for about 10 years," Rachana Mukherjee, the director of CRS Pvt Ltd, said over phone from Calcutta on Monday.

The director argued that the operations of the cable cars had been suspended from October 2003 and resumed only on February 2, 2012. The ropeway was closed following an accident on October 19, 2003.

“Even after that, the rides were suspended for some time because of differences between the forest department and the PWD. We have commercially operated for only 10 years till date and the services are a loss,” said Mukherjee.

The ropeway charges Rs 200 per adult and Rs 150 for every child aged between three and 10 years for a 5km ride to and from Singamari and Vah-Tukvar tea garden.

Twenty per cent of the proceeds goes to the forest department, said Mukherjee

“We had invested around Rs 3 crore in 1998 and we are still counting losses. We will go to court on the interpretation of the lease agreement,” said Mukherjee.

Fresh tenders have not been floated by the forest corporation and officials insists that they would first carry out some repairs and maintenance work.

“We are aware that the term of the contract has ended. We have decided to carry out some repairs and maintenance works as there have been accidents earlier. The main cable of the ropeway and some other equipment would be replaced. Once these works are done and the security issues are checked, we would lease it out again for resumption of the service,” said Udayan Guha, chairman, WBFDC.

Additional reporting by Main Uddin Chisti in Cooch Behar