The mock drill of Jammu ropeway project ought to bring similes on the faces of tourists visiting winter capital Jammu has sent the families of two tourists from Bengal and Bihar into shock who received their bodies with deep shock and grief. The deaths of two tourists during the mock drill shows that the authorities of the Jammu ropeway project have not taken care of the safety and security norms in checking the designing and functioning of the ropeway project before the conduct of its mock drill. Though Government has ordered a magisterial inquiry to look into the causes of the incident but without the technical investigation in the working of the ropeway project to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his forthcoming Jammu visit on February 3 the fear of more fatal incidents will remain there even after the Prime Minister inaugurates the project on February 3. In June 2017 seven people were killed in a similar incident in a cable car crash in Gulmarg and the then Chief Minister herself ordered a probe into the incident. Though the officials of the Gulmarg ropeway project had said that they had followed the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and shamelessly called the incident “ an act of god” but the findings of the investigation ordered into the Gulmarg cable car crash that killed seven people is still a mystery. This time the government needs to take lessons from the death of two tourists in the mock drill of the Jammu rope project and the issue has not to be restricted to the cause of the deaths but a technical investigation into the designing and construction of the Jammu rope project is must to ensure that such incidents don’t occur in future.
Since human lives are more precious than the importance of the inauguration of the dream project by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 3 better it would for the government to conduct the technical investigation before its inauguration to ensure that incidents like the one which resulted in the death of two tourists don’t occur again.
If technical investigation into the designing and construction of Jammu ropeway projected is conducted by technical experts of professional repute the possibility can not be ruled out that such an investigation helps the government to get to the roots of the technical faults which may have become the cause of seven deaths in Gulmarg cable car crash incident in June 2017. Keeping in view the concerns of the people about the designing and construction of the Jammu ropeway project better it would for the government not to rush for it’s much hyped inauguration by Prime Minister but to conduct a proper technical investigation of the ropeway project before the visit of the Prime Minister on February 3. The mock drill of Jammu Ropeway Project was though part of an exercise carried out to boost tourism in Jammu city but the very idea has shocked both the executive agency and as well as the government who wish the Prime Minister to inaugurate the dream project. Since human lives are more precious than the importance of the inauguration of the dream project by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 3 better it would for the government to conduct the technical investigation before its inauguration to ensure that incidents like the one which resulted in the death of two tourists don’t occur again.
