A view of Darjeeling Rangeet Valley Ropeway. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, Sept. 28: In order to leave out any scope for human errors, the Darjeeling ropeway will henceforth be electrically operated instead of manually.

The ropeway has not been functioning since October 19, 2003, when three cabins jumped the cable after slipping off the conveyor wheel atop a post and plunged 50 feet into the valley below. Four tourists died in the mishap.

Cabins 15, 1 and 2 of the 15-car service that were bringing tourists back from Vah Tukvar plummeted near Sat Talla. Fortunately, cabin 2, which tumbled about 200-ft further into a gorge, did not have any passenger on board.

The other two occupied cabins crashed into tea bushes of the Patabung estate and came to rest after rolling a short distance.

The date of resumption of services has not yet been announced.

The 5-km Darjeeling Rangeet Valley Ropeway, a joint venture of the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation and Conveyor and Ropeway Services Private Ltd (CRS), was being operated between North Point (Singamari) ? about 4 km from Darjeeling town ? and the downhill Vah Tukvar.

The authorities believe that chances of accidents on the ropeway will be minimised if it is electrically operated. ?There will be safety devices like limit switches, rope catches and guards, which will be electrically operated. Any problem in the system will be detected immediately and services will come to a halt,? said Pinaki Guha, the site in-charge.

?This system is likely to be foolproof. However, last year?s accident was not due to a mechanical failure. There was initial suspicion that the sub-soil had shifted, leading to the accident, but no signs of this were found later,? said Guha.

According to the official, a team of experts from the Geological Survey of India (GSI) had surveyed the area and not found any shift in the sub-soil.

?The shifting of sub-soil results in cracks on the foundation and this would have been an indicator that the ropeway needed repair. But there were no such signs. However, we are waiting for instructions from the GSI, which will help us find a solution to the shift in the sub-soil,? Guha added.

The government has already granted permission to CRS to keep the ropeway in running condition.

However, a final decision is yet to be taken on the number of cabins that will be used when services resume.

Neeraj Singhal, the divisional manager of the forest development corporation, said: ?We have allowed CRS to carry on maintenance work as the ropeway has not functioned for the past 10 months. However, it will take time for the services to resume. The CRS will first submit a report to a committee headed by Balbir Ram, the divisional commissioner (Jalpaiguri range).?

If the committee is satisfied with the report, the public works department will conduct a final check before issuing the fitness certificate.