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2022 Trikoot ropeway disaster: Inquiry report finds ropeway firm guilty
Anofficial said that the inquiry committee, headed by state finance secretary Ajay Kumar Singh, observed in its report that the cause of the accident at Trikoot Ropeway on April 10, 2022, was the failure or breaking of the return shaft during operation.
The Jharkhand government has found the operating company Damodar Ropeways and Infra Limited guilty and plans to impose a ₹9 crore fine after the tourism department completed the inquiry into the 2022 disaster at Trikoot mountain in Jharkhand’s Deoghar region, which claimed the lives of three people, officials familiar with the development said on Saturday.
According to an official, a decision on punitive action in the matter is expected soon in a meeting of Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation (JTDC).
The official further said that the inquiry committee, headed by state finance secretary Ajay Kumar Singh, observed in its report that the cause of the accident at Trikoot Ropeway on April 10, 2022, was the failure or breaking of the return shaft during operation.
“The failure or breaking of the shaft, according to the probe report, caused the bull wheel to shift from its position and impact the existing front structure. Apart from this, the official quoting the report said, shaft failure resulted in the dislocation of the rope from the return bull wheel,” the official quoting the report said.
“As the rope was dislocated, at the same time, the cabin leaving the return station (UTP) was unable to grip and catch the rope at the UTP station’s endpoint, which resulted in the fall of the cabin to the ground, causing one person to die and another to be seriously injured. The dislocation of the rope also led to the stopping of the ropeway, resulting in passengers being stranded in the air and having to be evacuated by personnel of the Indian Army and Indian Airforce over nearly two days,” the official said, quoting the report.
Regarding the mistakes made by the mentioned company, the official quoting the probe report said: “The handbook of working instructions for passenger ropeway at Trikut Hill, designed, manufactured, supplied, erected, and commissioned by Damodar Ropeway Construction Company Limited in respect of operation, maintenance, and management of the Ropeway, and the record produced by Damodar Ropeways and Infra Limited was not in compliance with the preventive maintenance plan and scheduled formats for daily and monthly maintenance of all types of ropeways intended for the transportation of passengers.”
“It was observed that ultrasonic testing of shafts was carried out multiple times by the laboratories engaged by M/s Damodar Ropeways and Infra Limited. It was tested twice in 2016, once in 2018, 2019, and 2021, but on none of the occasions were the abnormalities reported by CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur. The test report submitted in 2016 and 2018 mentions that 100 per cent shaft was not tested,” the official said.
According to another official, “The probe committee observed that the graphite flake content of grease was 0.96 against the specified value of a minimum of 6. The significance of grease lies in its role in reducing the friction between the shaft and bearings and inside the bearings. Reduced flake content of the grease led to enhanced friction between the shaft and bearings and inside the bearings, which may, in turn, cause enhanced stress on the shaft.”
An affidavit filed by the tourism department undersecretary Jitendra Bahadur Singh before the Jharkhand high court in a PIL initiated after suo moto cognizance supported these facts. A department official said that apart from planning punitive action, the department has also planned the restart of the ropeway.
“The closed ropeway will be restarted, but before that, there will be a safety audit. The tender for consulting was floated on August 19. The consulting company will prepare the DPR of the ropeway afresh,” the official said, sharing the advertisement published for the appointment of a consultant.
When contacted, the secretary of tourism, arm, culture, sports, and youth affairs department, without going into details, said, “The JTDC meeting is fixed for September 29.”
A tourism department official said the company does not have a good track record. Reports from different sources suggest that the company is involved in at least five places where reports of ropeway tragedies surfaced.
“The places include Jammu, where on January 20, 2019, 2 were killed and 4 injured after the ropeway project cable car crashed days before its inauguration by the PM. Apart from this, on October 18, 2021, a man fell 50 feet off a cable car from Savitri Mata Ropeway at Pushkar in Rajasthan. On May 23, 2022, 28 devotees were left stranded on the Maihar temple ropeway for about 40 minutes amid heavy rains. On July 10, 2022, 60 people, including BJP MLA Kishor Upadhyay, got stuck mid-air on Surkanda Devi Ropeway in Tehri in Uttarakhand for 45 minutes,” the official said.
