Sambalpur: At least 100 visitors who had gone to Gandhi Minar through the ropeway to enjoy the aerial view of Hirakud Dam got trapped there Wednesday evening, a report said.
According to sources, a newly installed ropeway at Sambalpur town side of Hirakud Dam attracted a large number of visitors on the occasion of New Year. As ropeway service was stopped at 5 pm, the visitors who did not return in time got trapped there.
At about 8 pm, local police rescued them and brought visitors down the hill by two PCR vans and other vehicles of Sambalpur civic body. However, the women, children and senior citizens suffered a lot.
This sparked resentment among visitors that led to altercations with staffers of contract firm Damodar Ropeway of Kolkata. As this firm provides ropeway service here and the staffers refused to provide service after 5 pm, visitors at Gandhi Minar were upset.
Reacting to this, the Enforcement Officer of Sambalpur Mahanagar Nigam and in-charge of ropeway service Subhankar Mohanty said, “The ropeway service has a capacity of 1,000 persons per day and 885 visitors had purchased tickets Wednesday afternoon.
Some visitors delayed to return from Gandhi Minar within the time frame given despite repeated announcements. Scheduled timing of closure (5.00 pm) has already been printed behind tickets for information of all the visitors”.
However, the timing for comeback will be changed to 4.30 pm and more awareness will be created henceforth, he added.