LATEST: All trapped tourists rescued from cable cars of Trikut hill ropeway, according to local officials. Three persons have died including a woman who is said to have succumbed to injuries sustained during rescue operations. Deoghar district administration is yet to reveal details.

Jharkhand High Court is understood to have taken suo motu cognizance of the Deoghar ropeway tragedy. It is likely to hold a hearing on April 26.

Operations to rescue remaining tourists from cable cars of a ropeway in Deoghar's Trikut hills resumed at 5am on Tuesday with 10 people being successfully airlifted with the help of Indian Air Force choppers over 40 hours after an accident on Sunday stalled the facility.

Five tourists were rescued first early on Tuesday morning, said Deoghar deputy commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri. Soon after five more were picked up.

Two persons were killed, including a man who fell from the helicopter during the rescue operation on Monday, after cable cars in a ropeway collided with each other on Sunday afternoon.

Deoghar deputy development commissioner said the man who fell from the helicopter on Monday evening had been declared dead on arrival in hospital.

As of Tuesday morning, till reports last came in, 42 people had been rescued. Four more were still stranded mid-air in four cabins.

A woman, identified as Sumant Devi from Sarath in Deoghar, had died in the collision on Sunday evening. “A pulley of one of the trollies got stuck resulting in the incident,” Bhajantri posted on Twitter.

“Personnel of Indo-Tibetian Border Police, Indian Army, Indian Air Force and NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) reached the spot in the morning for rescue work. One person died in the incident and one who sustained serious injuries is being treated... We are doing continuous announcements so that the people stranded won’t panic,” Bhajantri added.

Rescue operations had to be stopped after sunset on Monday as the ropeway runs through a densely forested area surrounded by hills, access to which is difficult except by air. Also making rescue from the ground difficult is the fact that the trolleys are suspended at heights of up to 1,500 feet.

Indian Army make an injured person lie down after the ropeway mishap. The Telegraph picture

Hemant orders probe

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has announced a high-level probe into the mishap and said the administration was keeping a close vigil on the rescue operation."The government is keeping a close watch on the situation," he said.

Drones were used to supply food and water to those who remain trapped mid-air in the cable cars.

State tourism minister Hafizul Hassa also said that the government would probe the incident. “The ropeway was being operated by a Calcutta-based private firm (Damodar Ropeways and Infra Limited). We will investigate why the maintenance of the ropeways was not done as per the terms and conditions mentioned in the contract.

Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais had said: "The accident on the ropeway built on Trikut mountain of Deoghar, a world-famous religious place, is very sad and painful. I express my deepest condolences to the families of the deceased and pray to Baba Baidyanath for the speedy recovery of the injured."

The Telegraph picture

Service launched in 2009

The Trikut ropeway, according to the Jharkhand tourism department, is India's highest vertical ropeway. It is around 800 metre long.

The ropeway service of Trikut Pahar, which was launched in 2009, is the only such tourist facility in Jharkhand. The three peaks of Trikut hill, said to signify the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, are a huge draw for tourists from Jharkhand and neighbouring states of Bengal, Odisha and Bihar.

The ropeway was introduced to ferry pilgrims to the top of the hill, which is a difficult climb on foot as there is no clear-cut pathway.

The highest of the three peaks of Trikut hill is at 2,470 feet from sea level and around 1,500 feet from the ground. The ropeway takes tourists to the top of the main peak offering a 360 degree view of Deoghar.

BJP MP says three dead

Local BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has claimed three, and not two, persons were killed.

Raghubar is scathing

BJP vice-president and former Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das accused the state government of being inactive even after such a major accident. No minister from the region visited the site, he claimed.

"The government does not care about the lives of the people. The inability to make quick decisions resulted in passengers hanging in the air overnight," Das said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is keeping an eye on the entire incident, he claimed. He demanded that the state government provide compensation of Rs 1 crore to the next of kin of the deceased and government job, besides treatment of the injured at government expense.

Earlier cable car accidents

In 2019, a family of four and three tourist guides died after cables of a ropeway in the ski resort of Gulmarg snapped.

Another ropeway accident in January of the same year in Jammu had resulted in the death of two workers while work on the new system was still underway.