The Raigad Ropeway is a

ropeway Ropeway may refer to: Cable transport * Cableway, or cable transport, a broad class of transport modes that have cables * Aerial lift, a means of cable transport in which cabins, cars, gondolas, or open chairs are hauled above the ground by mean ...

which provides passenger transportation to

Raigad fort Raigad is a hill fort situated in Mahad, Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. It is one of the strongest fortresses on the Deccan Plateau. It was previously known as Rairee or Rairy fort. Many constructions and structures on Raigad were b ...

, which is located in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, is considered as the ''capital of national resistance'' and the ''final resting place of the great founder of the Indian liberation'' – Chatrapati Shivaji. It is a place of national importance and attracts ''pilgrims'' of all ages. Prior to the ropeway the only way to ascend Raigad fort was to trek to it, which took an hour. The Ropeway makes this site relatively more accessible to those not in a physical condition to make this trek. The Raigad Ropeway project is a non-profit endeavour, being the only one of its kind in India. This facility is owned by the Shri Shivaji Raigad Smarak Mandal, (SSRSM)

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

an organisation started by

Bal Gangadhar Tilak Bal Gangadhar Tilak (; born Keshav Gangadhar Tilak (pronunciation: eʃəʋ ɡəŋɡaːd̪ʱəɾ ʈiɭək; 23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), endeared as Lokmanya (IAST: ''Lokmānya''), was an Indian nationalist, teacher, and an independence a ...

in 1886. Construction of this Ropeway was completed in 1996.

History

In 1990, the SSRSM was permitted by the government of

to construct a ropeway at Raigad fort. An offer of

Rupees Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

Eighty Million, received from a Central Government firm, from Naini,

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

, was considered to be unviable. Subsequently Jog Engineering Limited offered to execute the project on a Build - Operate - Transfer basis in 1994, at a cost of Rupees 31 Million, and the same was accepted by SSRSM .

Salient features of the project

The construction work commenced in November 1994, and was completed by March 1996. The project was inaugurated by the late Prof.

Rajendra Singh Rajendra Singh (born 6 August 1959) is an Indian water conservationist and environmentalist from Alwar district, Rajasthan in India. Also known as "waterman of India", he won the Magsaysay Award in 2001 and Stockholm Water Prize in 2015. He ...

Sarsanghchalak The Sarsanghchalak (IAST: Sarasanghacālaka) is the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist organisation that is widely regarded as the parent organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The RSS is o ...

of the

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family" ...

. The ascent is 420 m and the rope length is 760 m. The motor capacity is 52.22 kW and the cabin weight is 100 kg each.

Ropeway Museum

The project includes a museum which was created by

Babasaheb Purandare Balwant Moreshwar Purandare (29 July 1922 – 15 November 2021), popularly known as Babasaheb Purandare, was an Indian historian and theatre personality from Maharashtra, India. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's highest second-civi ...

and

Ninad Bedekar Ninad Gangadhar Bedekar (17 August 1949 – 10 May 2015) was a historian, writer and orator from Pune, Maharashtra, India, writing and speaking in Marathi. He was specialized in research of the rule of warrior-king Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj a ...

Photographs

File:Ropeway trolleys.JPG, Raigad Ropeway trolleys File:Opes of Raigad Ropeway.JPG , Raigad Ropeway ropes File:Riagad Ropeway Information.JPG , Raigad Ropeway Information in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

References

External links

Maharashtra tourism
{{coord missing, Maharashtra Aerial tramways in India Transport in Raigad district Tourism in Maharashtra 1996 establishments in Maharashtra