PESHAWAR: The caretaker government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has ordered the inspection of all air chairlifts installed in the province and conduct their safety audit following the cable car incident in Battagram.
The directives from the provincial government came on Tuesday just hours after the Pak Army’s special unit and zipline experts rescued 8 people, including 6 school boys, trapped for hours in a broken cable car high above a remote valley in Allai Tehsil.
The daring rescue started with a chopper plucking one child in the air to safety after almost twelve hours as daylight faded, but the helicopter was forced back to the base because of nightfall.
Then rescuer workers used a cable to keep the gondola from plunging into the scenic valley as a zipline to rescue the rest of those stranded late into Tuesday night.
As per the fresh directives issued to all the deputy commissioners in the province, they are tasked to conduct a safety audit of chairlifts within their jurisdictions.
Immediate Checking of Chairlifts
The advisory said that immediate checking of chairlifts at all commercial, recreational, and domestic places should be carried out by the provincial government.
It added that inspection of cable cars installed over canals and rivers should also be done by the relevant authorities.
The deputy commissioners have been asked to review the capacity, design, and safety measures of all cable cars and submit reports within a week.
It has also been made mandatory to get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the district administration for the installation of cable cars.
