Udan Khatola –The Skyway Chander P Mahajan Many a ropeway rides are a once-in a lifetime opportunity. I rode to the ‘Top of the world’ (top of Europe) way back in 1999, enjoying views of the most iconic and beautiful places on to the Jungfrau# (mountain) in Swiss Alps. The Ice Palace at jungfraujoch remains the frozen nostalgia. On my subsequent visit to Switzerland in 2017, I missed riding the new Eiger Express tri-cable gondola with a direct transfer option by train to jungfraujoch. Faster than before, it would have been a different feel of a thrill of the sort. The additional access would be the world's longest tunnel-lift system, funicular^; UNESCO World Heritage - Jungfrau Region. Scrolling my past, I catch up with my trolley rides at Shanan* Hydro station, JogindernagarHimachal; the funicular railways for Haulage, operating by cable with ascending and descending cars, counterbalanced. While talking about the Titlis Rotair gondola (360° view) & the Cliff Walk (Switzerland), believed to be the highest elevation suspension bridge in Europe; I look back to my Froggy leaps over ‘Shour Jhoola’ (hanging bridge) of Pangi in Himachal Pradesh. At times in sixties, I visited Gulmarg (Kashmir), when I was a student of Engineering in REC, Srinagar. Alas! Gondola cable at 13,400 ft. was not built, yet. •
Prior to 1893, a combined goods and passenger carrying cableway was installed at Gibraltar (UK). After the Second World War, many installations like ski lifts and chair lifts emerged in Europe, America, Japan, Canada and South Africa.