Wednesday, March 30 2005 19:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jammu: UPA (United Progressive Alliance) chairperson Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate the Gondola Cable Car project in the world famous ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir on April 8, a day after the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus rolls out.

"A day after flagging off of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on April 7, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate the Gondola Cable Car (second phase) project at Gulmarg ski resort on April 8," a JK Cable Car Corporation, Gulmarg, official Farooq Shah said today (Mar 30, 2005).

Gondola has replaced the old and costly heli-skiing, which was capable of carrying 2,100 people per hour to Apharwatt at 13,500 feet, the highest ski-able point on earth, he said.

National women skiers would also be selected on that day, he said.

The Gulmarg (8,700 feet) to Kungdori (10,050 feet) first phase of the Gondola project was completed in 1998 and the second phase of 2.65 km of ropeway to Apharwatt will be "an engineering wonder", Shah said.

Skiers would now be able to ski down a 6-km slope to Gulmarg, he said adding that a cross-functional team of engineers from Jammu and Kashmir and France's Poma, which installed the facility, have worked together on the project.