Guwahati gets India's longest river ropeway

Guwahati on Monday got the country's longest river ropeway that will connect two banks of the Brahmaputra.

Built at a cost of Rs 56 crore, the ropeway will cover a distance of 1.8 km, and bring down the travelling time between north Guwahati and the central part of the city to eight minutes.

It will help in not only promoting tourism but also make commuting easier, state Finance and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said after inaugurating the ropeway.

Thirty passengers can travel in a cabin of the ropeway, the work for which began in 2003.

"The inauguration of the ropeway is a golden day in the modern history of Guwahati, in particular, and Assam as a whole. There are many long ropeways on mountains but the one over the Brahmaputra is the longest river ropeway in the country," said Sarma, the local MLA.

"I am proud and happy to inaugurate the Guwahati Ropeway, the seeds of which were sown when I was the minister of the Guwahati Development Department (GDD)," he said.

He also highlighted the other projects undertaken for the development and beautification of the city to transform it into a major metropolis.

The work for a bridge over the Brahmaputra, the third in Guwahati, a ring road, nine foot-bridges with escalators are some of the major infrastructure projects that have been taken up by the government, Sarma said.

"We expect to complete most of these projects, if not all, by April next year," he said.

Current GDD Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Gauhati BJP MP Queen Ojha and Chairman of Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) Ashok Singhal were present on the occasion.